Waking Need
by bebeschtroumph
Summary: Post DITF. Basically a continuation, where I see things going. Actually has a plot, well, eventually. And citrus.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This is post Dead in the Family, so if you haven't read that, well, go do that. Honestly, what are you waiting for? If you are reading my other story, I promise, I haven't forgotten it. I got a really awful computer virus a couple months ago and lost a couple chapters, which I'm finally in the process of rewriting. I will actually probably have a chapter of that up tomorrow. This is purely fun, picking up where DITF left off, mainly because I can't believe Sookie just forgot about leaving her brother at Eric's. Enjoy, and read and review!

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I woke up slowly, as if I was drifting to the surface from the very depths of the ocean. I was warm, comfortable, as if I was cocooned in light. Two sets of arms were wrapped around me, but for some reason this didn't strike me as odd, but rather just as it should be. I knew I'd dreamt, but I couldn't recall the specifics, just a sense of goodness and love. Finally I sat up and stretched, disentangling myself from my cousin and great-uncle, who were both still asleep.

I managed to get out of bed without waking them, and went to the kitchen to make coffee and get a start on breakfast. Today was going to be a good day, and I didn't know if anything could detract from the overwhelming sense of peace that seemed to flow through my very veins. That feeling lasted until I filled my cup of coffee and took it outside to sit on the porch and enjoy the moist coolness of the morning air. Jason's truck, complete with obnoxious paint job, was parked where I'd left it. "Shit."

I'd left my brother at Eric's, and Eric had presumably returned home high on fairy blood. The thought of my boyfriend eating my brother put a serious damper on my good mood, though I was still feeling pretty good. I wondered if I was still feeling the after effects of the drugs Alcide had given me, or if this was all due to sleeping in close proximity to Dermot and Claude. I took my coffee inside and called Jason.

When he picked up, I actually sighed with relief. "Jason, you're alright?"

"Yeah, Sook, I'm fine. I'm at Pam's, and I called in sick, but if you could come get me, that'd be good. Pam said everything worked out okay last night?"

I took a long sip of my coffee. I don't know if I'd have described the situation as 'okay', but I wasn't ready to get into all that over the phone. "I guess. Turns out Dermot was on our side after all. He was under a spell, but Claude and I sorted that out."

"Well, shit." Somehow, Jason had summed it up rather nicely. "When you going to get here?"

"Give me about two hours." I got Claude and Dermot woken up, and let them know I was going to get Jason. They made some noise about coming with me, but I told them not to bother, since I was bringing Jason back here. If he'd taken the day off, I figured it was high time we had a bit of a family meeting. I didn't have to work until the dinner shift, so I had some time.

It was odd, about three hours later, when Jason, Dermot, Claude and I all sat around the kitchen table, drinking coffee or iced tea and eating BLTs. I'd filled Jason in on the previous night's events, and he'd been suitably shocked. He'd told me how Eric had returned once Pam was pretty much healed, and Pam had hurried him out of Eric's place and taken him to hers. The cleaners had still been sorting things out. Jason hadn't wanted Michele to drive the hour to pick him up, since it was so late by the time he'd realized I wasn't coming back.

It took us some time to do more than just sit in each other's presence. Once we'd all sat down together, that feeling of peace, of rightness, returned and I could tell we all felt it, even Jason. Finally Dermot spoke. "You do not understand what a relief it is to no longer be under Niall's spell. It has been decades since I've been able to think clearly. Being here, with all of you, is helping me to heal as well."

"What do you want to do, Uncle?" If I hadn't been so swept up in our mutual kinship, I might have struggled with what to call Dermot. Now it just seemed so natural, feeling the blood that ran through all of our veins. "You are welcome to stay here for some time, if you'd like."

Dermot stared at his hands for a few minutes. "I would like that, I think. I am not yet sure in myself. Being amongst kin will help me. Perhaps Claude can stay as well?" He turned to Claude. "I could use some help in sorting out my affairs, and I need to find a way to make a life for myself."

Claude nodded. "Once you are feeling more like yourself, you are welcome to live with me, though I am happy to remain here for right now. It is good to be with blood." We all just nodded at that. It was good, and there was no denying that.

Jason was the next one to pull us out of silence. "Why are we feeling like this?"

Claude thought before answering. "Because Dermot is healing, he is pulling on our essence, our kinship. It is always comforting for the fae to be with their blood, though it will be less," he paused, searching out the right word, "intense when he is completely well. For now it is best to gather our blood around us, so no one is drawn on too much."

In the silence, our breathing synchronized. We sat like that for hours, food and coffee getting cold, iced tea getting warm, until I managed to stand. "I have to work tonight."

Claude nodded. "I should go to my club. Jason, can you stay here?"

Jason nodded, which made Dermot smile. If their thought signatures hadn't been so different, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Dermot's had changed once the spell was broken, but it was still decidedly other than human. "I would like to spend some time with you, Jason. We have so much to talk about."

Claude and I both managed to get to our respective bathrooms and shower, but we were so reluctant to leave. It wasn't until we were physically outside of the house that the sensation started to dull. "This is intense, Claude," I said as I unlocked my car.

"It'll be better in a few days. He was under that spell at least since your parents were killed. He's healing."

I nodded. "Are you going to be back tonight?"

"Yeah. I'm just going to go get a bit of paperwork done, then I'll come back. I'll probably be home before you."

"Good. See you later, cousin."

He nodded to me and we both got into our cars and left. I was a bit distracted as I waited tables that night, though I still felt relaxed. I was smiling a heck of a lot more than I had been recently, and my tips sure felt the difference. It even seemed a bit easier to keep out of people's heads. Once it got dark, I felt the hum of Eric being up and about, and he seemed a hell of a lot more relaxed too. I wondered, as I served beer and chicken baskets, what I was going to do about Eric, especially with my house being chock full of fairies for the foreseeable future. Would he be able to control himself around Dermot and Claude? I remembered how vacant he'd gotten around Claudine, when he'd been cursed, but he'd seemed pretty lucid when he'd been fighting Breandan's crew as well as last night when he'd killed Colman. Would he even be able to sit in my living room with those two around? Who knew. I didn't even know when I'd hear from him, since he'd said he needed to sort out some things, what with Appius being dead. Of course, I had no clue what that meant. Appius hadn't exactly had a huge presence in Eric's life up until the past week. What exactly did he need to sort out?

By the time my shift ended, I was craving a bit of the peace I'd felt sitting with my fairy kin. Of course, Sam pulled me aside before I could get out the door. "Jannalyn told me a bit of what happened at the pack meeting last night. You alright?"

Somehow, with everything else, I'd almost forgotten about the pack meeting. "Oh, yeah, that went fine. I got out of there before anything too messy got started. The rest of my evening was pretty interesting, but I think everything worked out okay. The whole Dermot situation has been sorted out. He's staying with me for a while."

Sam frowned, but just nodded and let me go. I guess he figured I'd explain it when I wanted to. When I got home, Dermot and Claude were already in my bed, asleep. I smiled, showered and then got into my pjs and crawled in with them.

Eric called me the next night shortly after sunset, which came as a surprise. I'd worked the lunch shift, and had just gotten home to find Claude and Dermot cooking in the kitchen. Claude had handed the phone off to me with a wink when I walked into the kitchen to see if they needed any help.

I frowned and walked back to my bedroom with it. "Hey, Eric. You doing alright?"

He certainly sounded more relaxed, more like himself than he had the last time I'd seen him. "I am well, lover. Your cousin seemed to be in a good mood."

"I guess so. We're taking care of Dermot. He's doing a lot better." He was. Though it was still comforting to be with my fairy relatives, I didn't feel the pull of their blood as much as I had two nights before. "Are you getting everything sorted out? Is Pam all healed?"

"Yes. Pam is fine, and I am working out the details of Ocella's estate. Since Felicia was killed by his child, her maker will be paid from that. I am finding it difficult to cope without Bobby Burnham."

I wondered how much of Eric's business needed to be carried out during daylight hours. "Well if you need anything while you're looking for a new guy, let me know if I can help."

"Would it be possible for you to pick up paychecks from the bank for me tomorrow? If you don't have time I can get one of the waitresses to do it."

While I didn't mind, I hadn't expected Eric to take me up on my offer so quickly. "Uh, I guess so. What bank do you use?"

"The HSBC closest to Fangtasia." I knew which one that was, you passed it on the way from the interstate. "They close at five. Most of our employees use direct deposit, but you will still need the pay stubs. I will email the branch manager to let them know you will be coming instead of Bobby."

Great. I guess it served me right for offering. At least it reminded me I needed to go to my own bank and deposit Claudine's check. "Okay, I guess I can manage that."

"Thank you Sookie. I appreciate that." He paused for a few seconds. "Pam asked me to let you know that Bruno Brazell's car was found. Victor is irritated, but he knows he cannot easily implicate us. He is assuming for the moment that Bruno and Corinna have simply disappeared. He may try something underhanded."

That made me laugh. It was like saying the sun might rise tomorrow. "Won't that be fun? Anything else I need to know?"

"Will you come and see me tonight?"

I thought for a minute. Even though I wanted to see Eric, I was tired and I was craving Claude and Dermot's company, as odd as that seemed to me. "Look, Eric, I would, but Dermot kind of needs me. He's still healing from the spell and having family around is apparently helpful." I didn't mention how relaxed and peaceful it made me feel, and I didn't suggest he come over, since I was pretty sure the sleeping arrangements tonight would be the same as the previous two nights.

Eric actually seemed shocked at my refusal. It took him a few minutes to respond. "Will you come to see me tomorrow then? You can wait at my house after you go to the bank." Sunset was around quarter to eight, leaving me nearly three hours of sitting around waiting for him to rise.

"What time are you going to the club?"

"I'll need to be there shortly after sunset," he said.

I pursed my lips. It was my day off tomorrow, but then I worked the lunch shift the next day, so I didn't want to be up to all hours of the night. "I'll go to your bank in the morning, then I've got some other errands to run, but I'll come by Fangtasia around nine, okay? I'm working lunch on Thursday, though so I don't want to be out till too late."

He didn't sound happy. "Come to my house at eight. I want you."

That made me smile. At least he was honest. "I can make that work. Pass the phone to Pam, I want to say hello."

Pam sounded cheerful when she took the phone. "Hello. You had an interesting night after you left, I hear."

Pam did love understatement. "Yeah. Thanks for getting my brother out of Eric's when he was hopped up on fairy blood."

"You're welcome." She got serious for a moment, a rarity for Pam. "You must tell your brother thank you for giving me his blood. It really was delicious." Now she went back to teasing sarcasm. "No wonder Eric puts up with you, if you taste like that. I must convince him to share you at some point. I've only gotten to taste you once, and you were tainted with poison. It really isn't fair at all."

She cut off suddenly and Eric came back. I assume he'd snatched back the phone. At least Pam sounded pretty normal. "I will email you the information you need for the bank." I said okay and he abruptly hung up. I never got why vampires never seemed to say good bye.

The next morning, I went to my bank bright and early, and Dermot came with me. Claude had things to do in Monroe, so I'd offered to spend the day with my great-uncle. The intense connection we'd been feeling had lessened, but it was still pleasant to be together. Claude had told me this was probably the level it would settle out at, which was fine by me. I was pretty ready to have my bed back to myself.

When I handed the endorsed check to the teller, my hands shook. I put two thousand into my checking account, but the rest went into savings. Looking at my balance made me feel like I was going have a heart attack. I'd never had that much money in my life. What on earth was I going to do with it?

That was what Dermot and I talked about on the hour long drive to Shreveport. We talked about Claudine, and why she might have given me money, as well as what she might want me to do with it, what I wanted. He asked me what I would do with my life if a paycheck wasn't an issue, and I realized I had no idea. That was how I found myself in the admissions office of the Shreveport branch of LSU, with a pile of pamphlets in my lap. I felt shell shocked. And slightly excited, especially after hearing about the options for "non-traditional" students, which basically meant I was over twenty five and didn't need to go through the traditional application process, plus they had schedules that could fit around working.

After we went to the bank for Eric, we went to one of the big garden centers in Shreveport, and I bought some roses and a live oak. I'd wanted one for years, and Dermot got excited at the prospect of gardening, so it seemed like a fun way to spend the afternoon. Once we got home, we spent several hours in the garden, which we both enjoyed. Maybe it was part of being a sky fae. I remembered how pleased Niall had been about me gardening. Once that was done, I showed him how to use a computer, at least a little. He needed to get in touch with the banks where he had accounts, so we searched for phone numbers on the internet, then I left him to make some calls and got myself showered.

When I was out of the shower, I made some dinner, which was done about ten minutes before Claude walked through the door. We all ate together, then I left to see Eric, a stack of envelopes in my purse. Since I didn't have a garage door opener, I parked in the driveway and knocked on the front door. As soon as I was inside and my shoes were off he had me pinned against the door. I could feel his fangs against my neck as he spoke. "Lover, you smell amazing." Practically before I knew what was going on, he had me in his bedroom. I didn't know where my top had gone, but I certainly wasn't wearing it anymore and he'd unbuttoned my jeans before he threw me down on his bed and pulled them off.

He pulled off his own shirt and jeans, then got into bed with me, taking a minute to slow down. He kissed his way down my neck and over the curve of my breasts, making me arch into him. His lips worked their way back up to mine, and I lost myself in kissing him, in the feel of his hands ranging over my body, caressing every inch of skin he could reach. I tangled my fingers in his hair, keeping him locked against me.

When one of his large hands slipped inside my underwear, I broke off our kiss long enough to gasp, then pulled him back to me, kissing him fiercely as first one, then two fingers slipped inside me. His thumb rubbed circles around my clit and my hips bucked into his stroking fingers. I wrapped a hand around his very gracious plenty, doing a bit of stroking of my own. He broke away suddenly, making me cry out at the loss, but he just pinned both my hands above my head in one of his much larger ones, pulled off my underwear, lifted one of my legs by the thigh and slipped inside of me.

We both moaned as he entered me, going still for a moment as I adjusted before he thrust himself fully in. He started moving his hips so slowly, I wanted to scream out of impatience and pleasure. Everything felt so good, and I started arching myself into him, urging him on. He didn't need any more encouragement. I screamed as he increased his speed, bucking into each thrust, meeting everything he gave me. Just as my walls started clenching around him, he roared, sinking his teeth into my shoulder and drawing deeply, pushing me over the precipice into my orgasm, and triggering his own.

We settled into stillness, coming back into ourselves, my heavy breathing the only sound in the room. I must have screamed pretty loudly as I came, because my voice was horse when I spoke. "Well, hello to you too."

I could feel Eric smile as he licked the bite mark on my shoulder. "I missed you." He sounded almost surprised. "You smell almost like a full fairy, and you taste more like a fairy than normal as well."

I thought about that. "Claude said that spending time around the fae accentuated my bit of fairy blood. Maybe that's it."

His arms wrapped securely around me and he pulled me close, rubbing his nose into my hair and making a noise of agreement. "Tell me about your day. You smell like the sun, and earth, and the breeze and fairy. We should bottle this scent."

That made me smile, thinking about how fangbangers would go nuts for a perfume that made you attractive to vamps. "Well, I did some gardening with Dermot this afternoon. I'm surprised you can still smell that. I took a shower. I went to my bank this morning, then to yours. Claudine left me some money, so I deposited that. I talked to Dermot for a while, about what I want to do with the money she left me."

Eric nodded against my hair, his fingers tracing the curve of my waist. I tried to brush his hand away, since it tickled, but he ignored me. "And what did you decide to do with your fairy legacy, my love?"

I shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "I went by the LSU campus and picked up a prospectus. I don't know though. I can't really see myself going to college. I don't even know what courses I would want to take."

"It isn't a bad idea. You're intelligent. You can't work in a bar forever."

I laughed at the immortal bar owner, telling me that working in a bar wasn't a good long term career choice. "I'm having a think. Would you maybe have a look through the course catalogue with me?"

For some reason, that made Eric inordinately happy. "Of course, Sookie. I would love to." He sighed. "I really need to get to the club. I wish I could just stay here all night fucking you."

I decided to broach a sensitive subject. "Eric, how are you feeling about everything, you know, Appius and all that?"

He took a long time to answer that, and I let him. "It will take some time to adjust to his being gone. I knew Ocella for over a thousand years. It is not a relationship that can be described in words. I loved him with all my heart, and hated him with all my being. I cannot explain." He stretched and stood, pulling on his pants and reaching out a hand to help me up. "Come on lover. We need to get going."

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**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, there will be more soon. Just saying I fixed a few completely inexcusable typos from when I first posted this. Sorry all!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I normally don't do this, but I actually have very specific images for what Sookie is wearing at the end of this chapter, and I don't think I described it that well, so if you want to check it out, look in my profile. Eric's shirt is there as well. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. The next one probably won't be out as quickly, but this was mostly finished by the time I put that one out, so here it is. Hope you all enjoy.

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I got back to Bon Temps around midnight, to find Jason, Dermot and Claude watching a movie on the couch. I made some popcorn and joined them. Without actually deciding anything, we all got blankets and pillows and slept in the living room, even Jason. I was pretty glad about that, since four grown adults were not going to fit in my bed.

Of course, my back wasn't so happy with me in the morning, and certainly not after the first hour of the lunch shift. We were surprisingly busy for a Thursday afternoon, so I was kept hopping pretty much from the get go. Sam went into his office to take a call towards the end of my shift and came out looking pretty angry. If we hadn't been so busy, I probably would have just asked him what was up, but I didn't have time, so I tried to get a read on him while I was moving from table to table.

Sam could be hard to read, being a shifter, but anger was coming through loud and clear. I got a few images, something about a newspaper and some people I didn't recognize, but that was pretty much it. When I passed off my tables to Holly, I pulled him aside to ask what was wrong. He dragged me to his office before he would say anything.

"It was my sister on the phone. Apparently there's a big anti-Were demonstration going on in Houston this weekend. There's talk about people marching in DC, trying to get this registration bill passed." Sam started pacing. "I'm so angry. Did you see the Shreveport Times this morning?" I shook my head, and he stopped pacing to flip open the newspaper on his desk.

The page he showed me was letters to the editor, and I saw pretty quickly why he was so upset. Four of the five letters were people defending the bill, saying that Weres should have to register. The last one was an angry shifter saying that it made sense to force vamps to register, since they were legally dead and thus had no official existence without registration. She went on to say that she had a driver's license, paid her taxes and had no need to be on a separate register unless the government simply wanted to keep track of the two-natured. I had to admit she had a point.

Once I was done reading, I looked at Sam and sighed. "I'm sorry Sam. This just makes me happy there's no organization of telepaths deciding to come out. What's the word in the shifter community?" I knew Sam kept in touch with other shifters through online message boards.

He shrugged. "People are mad. A bunch of us are going to Washington for a weekend long demonstration next month. I'm going to try and go. Everybody is writing their congress people and senators. We don't really know what else to do."

I didn't envy Sam his position. I didn't know what he should do either. I gave him a quick hug good bye and headed back home. I was surprised to find the house empty when I got there. Dermot had left a note, telling me they'd gone to Monroe and would probably be back the next afternoon. I made myself some dinner, then decided to take advantage of the empty house to get some cleaning done, including washing my sheets. I certainly didn't need Eric asking me why my bed smelled like fairy.

Once the laundry was done and I'd vacuumed the living room and cleaned the kitchen, the sun had set. I decided to call Eric. Normally I tended to wait for him to call me, since I hated to come off as a clingy girlfriend, but I missed him and I had the house to myself if he was free.

He didn't pick up his cell when I called, which was surprisingly disappointing, so I ran myself a bath since my back was still aching. I settled into the tub with a book, leaving the phone within reach incase he called back. It felt so good to just soak in the hot water, and I lingered until my toes had pruned. Right when I had started thinking about getting out, the phone rang, so I reached out and picked it up.

"Hello my lover." Of course, it was Eric.

"Hey Eric. How's your night going?"

He took a minute to respond, but I didn't get any agitation through the bond. He just felt relaxed. "I will be happier when I have a new day person. I actually need a favor, if you're available tonight."

I sighed. Of course he hadn't called to just have a conversation. "What do you need?"

"I'm interviewing several people to replace Bobby tonight. If you could sit in, I'd appreciate it." I took a minute to think about it. I didn't particularly want to go all the way to Shreveport, but I knew how much trust Eric put in his day man.

I sighed and rose out of the tub. "Alright, I'll head over in a few minutes."

"Thank you, lover. Where are you?" He'd called my cell, so he didn't automatically know I was home.

"Well, I'm getting out of the bathtub."

He laughed. "I was wondering about the water sounds. Would you like Pam to come get you?"

I thought about that. "No, I'll drive myself. If it gets too late, I'll stay with you if that's alright. I need to be back for the lunch shift tomorrow, so I'll have to leave pretty early if that's alright." I would have to leave Eric's around 8:30, but if he needed my help I could manage on a shortage of sleep.

He agreed, and I got toweled off and then dried my hair. I was glad I'd shaved my legs in the tub. I took a few minutes to poke through my drawers, then settled on a pretty green sleeveless top with ruffles around the collar, a black skirt that hit a little above the knee and some black heels. After a moment's thought I grabbed a white short sleeved cardigan. Eric hadn't said anything about a dress code, but I figured I should try to look at least semi professional, if he was doing interviews. I thought I'd managed a nice balance between that and sexy.

When I got to Fangtasia, Maxwell Lee was on the front door, and nodded to me around to the back. No one was posted there, and I guessed that was because Appius and Alexi were gone and no crazed Tsarevich was going to escape and go on a killing spree. I guess that also explained the full front parking lot. It seemed like business was booming again.

I let myself into Eric's office after knocking, and both Eric and Pam looked at me oddly. "What?" I asked.

It was Pam who answered. "You're looking very professional."

I frowned at her. "What, you think the only things I own are jeans and cutoff shorts? Eric said he was doing interviews." Now I was embarrassed. I had done office work before settling at Merlotte's a few years ago. I had professional clothes. The fact that Amelia had given me the top and the sweater didn't really matter, as far as I was concerned.

Pam was in her typical Fangtasia getup, and Eric was in jeans and a dark blue button down, that had narrow stripes of black and white breaking up the color. He frowned at Pam, rose and kissed me gently on the lips. "You look nice," he said to me. "Thank you for coming. The agency that handles these things is sending over four people for me to have a look at. They've been screened, so they shouldn't be criminals or anti-vampire, but you never know. I am mostly looking for honesty, someone easy to get along with." Eric knew Bobby had hated me. Was that why he wanted me here? To help pick a day guy who liked me?

I sighed slightly. I'd actually been looking forward to doing something a bit more challenging than slinging burgers. "Sure. Just tell me where you want me." Pam and I sat on the couch, and Eric settled back behind his desk. If I heard anything troubling, I would tell them so I could touch the person and get a deeper reading. He'd given me a pad and a pen, so I took notes as he spoke to each of the candidates, three men and one woman. The woman and one of the men were planning on doing everything in their power to get Eric to sleep with them. For me, that crossed them off the list, but I figured Eric could make that call so I just wrote it down.

Other than that, everyone was pretty run of the mill. One of the men liked to gamble a bit more than was probably healthy, and had some debts, though nothing too excessive. They were all pretty normal, and none of them were fangbangers or members of some anti-vampire organization as far as I could tell. None of them were drug addicts or had been convicted of a felony. One of the guys had been charged with a felony, for going joy-riding when he was sixteen, but I figured that was a fair enough omission. I didn't put it in my notes.

Once Eric was done, he looked to me and I handed over the pad. He took a few moments to flip through the pages. "So not Jon or Amanda then?"

Those were the two who really wanted to sleep with him. "I'm just giving you the information, Eric. What you do with it is your call."

He finished flipping through the notes, then handed them to Pam. She'd read most of it over my shoulder anyway, but she flipped through them again. "I don't like the gambler. That could be a problem if he gets in too deep with anyone. He could sell you out to pay someone off."

Eric nodded. "That leaves Martin Whitby." Eric looked over my notes on that guy again. I remembered what I'd written. Thirty-two, single, owns a cat named Twinkie. He'd worked for a vampire in New York for three years, but had quit so he could live closer to his parents who were getting on in years. They weren't sickly, but he'd wanted to be a bit closer in case of emergencies.

I stood and stretched slightly. "I guess I'll get out of your hair then." I was pretty tired, and Eric looked busy.

He frowned slightly. "Don't go yet. Pam, tell this Martin person he's hired and get him added to payroll. Give him Bobby's files to go through." Pam nodded and left, closing the door behind her. To my surprise, Eric handed a check he's been filling out to me.

"What the heck is this for?" It was made payable to me, for three hundred and fifty dollars.

He looked confused. "For helping with the interviews. For your time."

"Jesus Christ, Eric!" I was outraged. "You think you can just buy my time, like I'm some kind of whore? Just who do you think you are, buddy?"

His fangs were down now. I guess he really didn't like it when I called him buddy. "You are being ridiculous, Sookie. I am not going to pay you for sex, I'm paying for your telepathy."

"I did this as a favor, not for money. Jesus." It didn't make sense, maybe, but I hated to get paid by my friends. It made me feel like an asset. Thank god, the Weres never offered.

He sighed and his fangs went mostly away. "I wasn't implying you wouldn't have done it if I didn't pay you. I just don't think you should always be doing things for free. Speaking of which, what exactly happened when you were at the pack meeting? We didn't have time to discuss it, with everything that had happened afterwards."

Eric must be king of the understatement. I thought about what I was going to tell him for a few seconds. "They needed someone to act as shaman. I managed to get myself elected for that position. I drank some kind of drug and it let me see things, colors to go with emotions. It's hard to explain."

Eric's lips were pursed. "And I suppose you received no recompense for that?" My flat glare seemed answer enough. "So as thanks for letting them run amuck on your lands during the full moon, they left behind a body and drugged you so you could tell them who had done the deed. That seems very fair, my lover."

I didn't want to get into this. I didn't do a favor to get paid for it. I just put the check down on his desk. "Just drop it, Eric. Anyway, I figured it out and then Jason and I got the heck out of there before things got too crazy. Of course, we then got to your house, where a whole different kind of crazy was ongoing." I was actually glad I'd been drugged when Jason had pushed Eric's ribs back in. That wasn't a sight I needed to remember.

For whatever reason, Eric seemed content to change the subject. "Did you think more about taking classes?"

I sighed. I had, but I hadn't really gotten any further. "Yeah, but I still don't know. I mean, my handle on my telepathy is a bit better than when I was in high school, but I still think it'll be difficult to sit in a classroom for too long. Plus I have no idea what I want to do with myself. I mean, the thing I like best about working at Merlotte's is that there's always someone different coming in. I worked in a couple offices before Sam hired me and it was such a nightmare. It's fine with customers coming and going all the time, I never really get too far inside their heads, but seeing the same people day after day, it's just really difficult." I shrugged. "I can't figure out what I could do. Plus waitressing might be boring, but I have time to have my own life. So many people get taken over by their jobs."

I wondered at the wisdom of saying that to a vampire who'd spent the past however many years spending most of his time dealing with the night to night affairs of his area, but I didn't mention it. Eric seemed to think for a bit. "So your requirements include being around different people most days and being able to have free time?" I nodded. Those were the very basic requirements. "Have you thought about doing something that uses your telepathy? It is certainly a skill that sets you apart."

"Well, sure, but it's not exactly something I could put on my résumé. I mean, come on, 'telepath for hire'? I don't think that would go over too well."

"You could work as an investigator, and actually get paid for the work you do anyway, for me, for the Weres, even just humans. You could turn it into a consulting job, start with those who know about your telepathy, then expand from there."

I gave him a hard look. "And just how long do you think I'd be choosing my own jobs? I can't see turning down a vamp going over too well. I'm sure if I get to be too useful, your bosses aren't going to be happy with me hiding myself away in Bon Temps."

"I do not think you understand that being my wife," he held up a hand to keep me from objecting, "That being my wife will afford you some measure of autonomy."

I thought about exactly how much 'autonomy' it had 'afforded' me while I was being entertainment for the torture twins. I'd had enough of this conversation. "I'll think about it. Any news on the whole Victor situation?" It said a lot that I'd rather plot to kill Victor Madden than talk about my career options, or our vampire marriage, with Eric.

"As I told you, Victor was notified by police about Bruno's car being abandoned. I, of course, told him I hadn't seen him, and that I had no idea what he was doing in my area, let alone why Bruno would abandon his car halfway between Shreveport and Monroe. Bruno and Corrina have been listed as missing, and Victor has reported their disappearance to Felipe. I think for now we play the waiting game, see what Victor's next move will be."

Eric had a very dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Well, let me know what I can do to help. You know I won't shed a tear for him when he goes."

Now I didn't recognize the look Eric gave me, but he didn't feel upset or judgmental. If I had to guess I would have said he was pleased. "You really are changing, Sookie."

I just shrugged. "Look, Eric, I'm not inclined to forgive the guy who tried to prevent my rescue from torture and certain death. What are you up to for the rest of the night?"

"I have a couple meetings, some area grievances to resolve. We can leave together in a couple of hours, I think. It shouldn't take me much longer than that. I have some paperwork to do before I go to my rest, but I can do that at home."

I traced a finger down the buttons of Eric's shirt, then wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest. Cold or not, he felt good. "I guess I can wait, if you're sure you can do things from home."

His fingers traced through my loose hair, then he tilted my chin up so he could kiss me. I was shocked by the amount of passion he could pour into what was really a fairly subdued embrace. When he pulled away, my breathing was rapid and I was leaning pretty heavily against him, since I wasn't sure my knees really wanted to support me. The way he looked at me made me shiver. "I love you, Sookie."

It was hard to be nonchalant, after hearing the raw emotion he put in that phrase, but somehow I managed it. "I love you too, Eric." With that I gave him a swift peck on the lips and went out to the bar to find something to entertain me for a couple hours.

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**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed that one, guys. I know Sookie is running from emotion, but I figured that was pretty typical, and it seemed like a good place to stop for the moment. Check out my profile if you want to see outfits.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Heyo all. So, it seems like people only review steamy chapters. I am nothing if not accommodating, so don't expect them all to be like this, but this one is for mature audiences only, kiddos! The lemons take me ages to write, so the next chapter, being less citrus and more plot, should come quicker. Ack, I just realized I made a mistake as to when Sookie needed to be back for work. I'm sorry, but I like her going in for the lunch shift, so I've gone back to chapter two and switched that around. So, Sookie needs to be back in Bon Temps for the lunch shift. Sorry for the confusion!

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Pam hung out with me in the bar for a while, making sarcastic remarks about the fangbangers until Eric needed her for something. Apparently, they hadn't had time to replace Felicia, killed by Eric's brother during a psychotic break, since a human was tending bar tonight. She wasn't as quick as the vampire, but she made sure a waitress kept my iced tea topped up, which was fine by me.

By the time Eric got done with his business, the bar was getting ready to close and I was pretty tired. If I hadn't needed to get back to Bon Temps before he got up for the night, I would have left my car in the Fangtasia parking lot, but instead I followed Eric home. He actually kept to the speed limit, which impressed the heck out of me. He got into the house first, through the garage, and had the front door open by the time I got to it.

He didn't lead me straight to the bedroom, which came as a slight surprise. Instead we settled onto his huge couch, me snuggled into his side. We just sat like that for a good long while, his arms wrapped around me, both stretched out with our feet up. I was so comfortable I actually started drifting off before Eric spoke. "I do not understand you reluctance to take money from me. I paid you in the past when you used your telepathy."

That made me sit up and rub the sleepiness from my eyes. "Seriously, Eric, you choose to start this conversation now?" I sighed and sagged back into him. He grunted a yes. "I guess I don't mind doing things for you with my telepathy, and you paying me. But tonight, you asked for a favor. I came here, as a girlfriend, to do a favor for my boyfriend and you handed me a check. I wasn't helping you for money, I was helping you because I wanted to be sure you didn't wind up with some psycho as a day man."

His fingers teased their way through my hair slowly. "What bothers you so much about being paid to use your telepathy?"

I thought that through before I replied. "I don't know. I guess it's more of a line kind of thing. I don't mind doing a favor for you, or Alcide's pack, but if I start doing this as my income, where do I draw the line? If I hear something in Fangtasia, I'm not going to expect you to pay me for the information. It just feels wrong, I guess. I mean, I know I get better tips because my boobs are big, but that doesn't mean I'd be okay with working at Hooters."

Eric laughed at that. "You worked at Rhodes without qualms."

I shrugged. "Sophie-Anne hired me for a specific job, for specific dates. Plus I didn't really know her on a personal level. I mean, we'd met, you know, because of the whole Hadley thing, but I didn't think of her as a friend."

"So if I hired you for specific things, you would be alright with me paying you for that?"

It took me a few minutes to think that through. Why did I find it so irritating that Eric had tried to give me money? I certainly didn't like feeling kept, and I liked being able to do things for my boyfriend from time to time. If I did decide to take some college classes, I'd probably need to cut back on my waitressing hours, and it would be nice to have a source of income, even if it was just the occasional job. I didn't want to start living off the money Claudine gave me. "I guess that would be alright. What kinds of jobs?"

Eric seemed inordinately pleased with himself. "If I have a meeting with humans, I would like for you to be present. If I need to hire a human, you would help question them. Occasionally I would ask you to simply sit in Fangtasia and listen, to see if there are any problems I should be made aware of. If there is a vampire event I need to attend and humans will be present, you will accompany me. It would only be a few nights a month, maybe twice a week or something similar."

I frowned slightly. "Well, apart from the events, that sounds fine. If you want to take me along as your date, fine, and I don't mind keeping tuned into other people, but you're not paying me for that. I'm not an escort." He nodded against my hair. "We'll need to negotiate my fee." He nodded again, and I took a second to think of a suitably obscene number to get started. "Seventy-five bucks an hour."

"Done."

I sputtered. "Eric, that's insane. I thought we were going to negotiate."

"It's not my fault you started too low. I pay my lawyer far more per hour, and his skills aren't nearly as unique as yours. In fact, I'll have him draw up a contract. We'll keep it nice and professional." I could feel him smiling against my hair. "Since I'm feeling generous, I'll even stipulate that you have the option to renegotiate your fee in six months. I may come to regret that, once you see what others are willing to pay for your skills, but hopefully you'll take pity on your husband."

I punched him in the arm gently. A contract was a good idea. I thought that maybe I should get Gran's lawyer to make up a general one that I could give to anyone I worked for. That would make it easier to keep things formal, and if I did something without a contract, it was my call and I wouldn't expect to get paid for it. Of course, I didn't know how he'd word out exactly what I was doing. I guessed the lawyer could just copy whatever Eric's lawyer drew up. "That's a pretty good idea, Eric. I'll have to work around my hours for Sam, but with advance warning, I can work things out."

I covered a yawn with my hand, and Eric shifted to look at me. "Good. I will send an email to my lawyer, and we can discuss what he draws up in a few days. For now, let's go to bed so that I can put you properly to sleep before I finish my work."

He led me to his bedroom, and I couldn't help but smile. I was happy to do the odd telepathy job and get paid for it, even by Eric. Maybe his idea of using my telepathy as a potential career wasn't such a bad idea. I could take some business classes, learn how to build a client base. It could be fun.

As soon as we got to Eric's bedroom, I found myself not caring so much about which classes I wanted to sign up for. Even before he got the door closed, his hands were roaming all over me, under the hem of my skirt, pushing it up, untucking my blouse and pulling off my cardigan. I quickly found I wasn't quite as tired as I thought I'd been, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss me.

Kissing Eric was always exciting and tonight was no exception. I got that wonderfully tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach as soon as my mouth opened to his, and it spread quickly to fill my body. He broke away from my lips, kissing his way down my neck, over my collarbone. He paused at the edge of my blouse, pushing me backwards onto the bed. "Did I mention how much I like what you're wearing?"

I laughed at that, my head dropping back to the pillows as he continued his journey south. His fingers were setting me on fire, gently teasing each button of my shirt open. The coolness of his fingertips brushing over my skin. "Jesus, Eric." As soon as the words fell out of my mouth, I lapsed back into silence, too full of the feel of him to say anything more.

Now he laughed, softly against the skin of my stomach. "Sorry, lover, just me here. Though of course, should you wish to add that sort of element to our repertoire, I'd be more than willing to satisfy you. Pam has been giving me a hard time about keeping you to myself."

I gently smacked the top of his head. "Knock it off, Eric."

He slid back up to my face, kissed me again. Once he broke away, I could see him grinning at me. "You really want me to stop, lover?"

I didn't say anything, just pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips, grinding into him as we kissed again. Now it was me sliding down his body. I slowly unbuttoned his shirt, nipping him gently where his skin was exposed and he groaned, lighting a fire within me. It was so gratifying to know I could turn him on just as much as he turned me on. He sat up slightly so I could pull off his shirt, and I slid down further, catching his eyes as I unbuttoned his jeans and slid down the zipper.

His eyes slid closed for a second when I took his cock in my hand, stroking it up and down. When I slipped the tip into my mouth, his eyes locked on mine, just for a second as I paused before sliding him as far into my mouth as he would go. I was pretty sure I would never get tired of the noises he made as I blew him, the grunts and moans as he fell apart under my hands and tongue. I felt powerful, as I brought him close to orgasm, slightly awed that I could elicit such a response from a man who had so many more lifetimes of experience than me.

His groans brought me back to the moment, one of his large hands threading into my hair as I pushed him into the back of my throat. He spoke just before he came in my mouth, but I had no idea what he said. By the tone it was a curse or an entreaty to some long dead god. I swallowed, his hips shuddering under me as I let his penis fall from my mouth. I grinned as he lay there staring at me. "So I guess I'm getting better at that?"

He just stared at me for a second before he managed a slight smile. "Oh, yes. That was," he paused, leaning back into the pillows, "most excellent. You have considerable talent in that area."

I looked at him for a few seconds, enjoying watching him relaxing in front of me, knowing I was the one who had gotten him into that state. I sometimes wondered how he could enjoy our sex life, if he thought it boring and vanilla compared to everything he must have done over the past thousand years. Looking at him like this, satisfied and deliciously content, it was hard to imagine he hadn't loved everything I'd done to him. He pulled me close to him, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly.

It made me smile, the incongruous image of the fierce sheriff vampire who loved to cuddle. "You really love to snuggle, don't you?"

He nodded against my head, tangling our legs together. "I told you that even before Jackson. What is wrong with snuggling, anyway? I like being close to you." He tilted my head up, capturing my lips in a kiss, as one of his hands drifted down to the zipper of my skirt, slipping it down. "You really are an amazing creature, my love."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just kissed him. He didn't seem to mind my method of silencing him, just slipping my unbuttoned blouse over my shoulders and unhooking my bra. Both items of clothing disappeared off the bed, followed shortly thereafter by my skirt and his jeans. We settled back to kissing for a time, our legs wrapped together, his hands running along my body, teasing me. When I started grinding my hips into his, I felt him smile against my lips.

He pushed me onto my back and slid down between my legs, pulling my underwear down as he went. Once I was completely naked, he grinned at me and settled between my legs. His fingers traced slowly over my thighs, making me giggle slightly. "Tickles," I whispered. He just smiled and kissed where he'd tickled me.

"Hush, Sookie." His fingers continued to trace their way over me, inching closer to where I wanted him to be. The air was cool as it hit my wetness when he spread me slightly open. "You do have the most perfect pussy, lover."

I blushed. "Eric!" I objected quietly. I found myself not caring as he slipped a finger inside me. My eyes slipped closed and I couldn't help but raise my hips to meet him.

When I looked at him again, he was smiling. "I will never tire of pleasuring you. I think those are my favorite memories from when I was cursed. Watching you come is truly a wonderful experience." I felt like my face was on fire, but it was hard to focus on his words with what his hand was doing to me. He slipped a second finger inside of me and I moaned as he stoked me. I was going to object when he pulled his fingers out of me, but he shifted them slightly farther down, rubbing a very sensitive area. He brought his other hand into play, slipping two fingers inside me again, while his first hand continued rubbing. His face leaned closer to me, and I cried out as he started licking my clit, slowly and carefully.

Everything he was doing felt so good, I couldn't bring myself to object to exactly where he had his hand. Right now I could barely bring myself to think. It was all I could do to keep breathing. I was panting and squirming, cursing quietly under my breath, feeling a clenching low in my abdomen as he brought me closer and closer to orgasm. My hips were bucking against his face, and I know I was yelling, but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what exactly I was screaming as I came, or even what exactly he was doing that made me come so hard. I swear, the world momentarily went white.

I don't know how long I was laying there, but when I finally became aware of what was going on around me, Eric was laying next to me, his fingers stroking my arm as he nuzzled my neck. The only thing I could manage to say was, "Fuck," which made him laugh, then kiss me. The kisses started out gentle, but we soon found the intensity increasing, our hips pressing together as we rolled around on the bed. Eric moved on top of me, then slowly slid himself into me, making me gasp against his lips. He moved slowly at first, making sure I was meeting his every movement with approving moans. Our pace gradually increased, and we were both moaning, enjoying the feel of each other, being so close, so connected. Soon I was clenching down around him, coming as he thrust into me, screaming as I came. He bit my shoulder, pulling at the wound for a second before he released, then collapsed on top of me.

After a second or two he rolled to the side so that he wasn't crushing me, but I didn't have the energy to move, or even open my eyes. By his tone I could tell he was grinning. "So, Sookie, I suppose you'll sleep well?" I mumbled something affirmative. "I'm glad I did a good job." I probably would have given him the finger, if any of my limbs were working. "What time do you need to wake up?"

I forced my very sleepy and satisfied brain to think. Wake up? Oh, I had to be at Merlotte's at 10:30 to do my prep for the lunch shift. Why hadn't I thought to call in sick? Since it was going to take me an hour to get home, and I would need to shower, get dressed and eat something, I really should get up at 8:00. I groaned. "Eight, I guess."

His fingers ran through my hair. "I will most likely still be up, but I will set an alarm for you."

My brain still wasn't firing on all cylinders. "What time is dawn?"

"About seven, but I can stay up for a bit, and I have work to do." I figured that was something I could ask about later, so I just nodded against his hand and drifted to sleep.

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**A/N:** Phew! Is it hot in there or is it just me? I need a glass of water. Let me know if you liked it please. I'm working on the next chapter now so that should be along in the next few days.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Managed to get this out quicker than I thought I would, and there's even citrus. Aren't you all lucky. Reward me with reviews! Tell me if you think the scene between Sookie and Eric works. The more reviews, the faster I type.

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Eric was still up when I left then next morning, and since I was slightly more coherent, I took the time to ask him about it. Apparently part of it was age, part of it was personality. Pam, for example, found staying up even a few minutes past dawn nearly impossible. I remembered how nothing I'd done during the bombing at Rhodes had come close to making her stir, and how Bill's maker Lorena had been awake that morning in Jackson, happy to keep torturing Bill even though the sun was up. Eric said he was frequently up for the hour or so after dawn and before sunset, and he usually brought his laptop into his room to get some work done.

Of course, since he was up, I wound up leaving a bit later than I'd wanted to, but I didn't really mind. It had been far too nice to bring a cup of coffee into his room and chat for a bit before I left to start my day. It almost made me feel like we were a normal couple, even though the hot beverage I brought him was synthetic blood. Then, of course, we got a bit carried away with our greetings, but at least I felt like I repaid him for putting me to sleep so well.

Of course, that left me rushing to get showered before work, and I didn't have time to eat anything but a quick slice of toast with jam. I made it to the bar on time, and Sam seemed in a surprisingly good mood when I dropped my purse in his office. He greeted me with a smile and a wave. "Hey Sook."

"Hey Sam," I said, smiling back at him. After last night I was still feeling happy and relaxed, not to mention actually spending some morning with Eric. "You have a good night?"

"Yeah, we had a pretty good take, which was good, but my brother just called. He and Deidra have decided to set a new date for the wedding."

I grinned, though I wasn't so happy on the inside. "That's great, Sam! When's the wedding?"

"First weekend in September. You still going with me?"

"Well, if you don't decide to take Jannalynn, I'd be happy to. I'm going to need to check with my boyfriend, make sure we're not doing anything, but I think it should be fine." I actually doubted Eric would be too happy I wanted to go out of state with another man, but Sam was my friend. Still, I gave myself an out, since it wasn't something I wanted to fight about, and reminded Sam he had his own girlfriend to think of.

Sam nodded at me with a smile. "How is Eric? Things with you going alright?"

I nodded back. "Unhun. Hey, Sam, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."He gestured that I should continue. "You know how I mentioned that Claudine wasn't going to be coming around anymore?" He nodded again. "Well, she got herself killed while looking out for me during that whole fairy mess. She left me a bit of money, and I'm thinking of using it to take some college classes, maybe get my degree."

Sam's grin was infectious. "That's great, Sook. I always said you were too smart to be a waitress forever. What are you thinking of studying."

I sighed slightly. "Well, basically, the only thing I really have going for me is my telepathy. I was thinking I could basically be a contractor with that, help people out, investigating things. I do a lot of that anyway for free, so I figure I might as well get paid for it. I've been looking at the LSU Shreveport prospectus, and they have a business administration program, so I'm thinking about that. "

"That's a great idea, Sook," Sam said. "You can have your own business, and you're certainly good at what you do. You can't say you don't have a unique skill set to offer." It was funny to hear Sam say basically the same thing as Eric.

"Yeah, it's the only thing I can think of that really sets me apart. I may as well get some use out of it."

"Don't sell yourself short, Sook."

I just shrugged. Compliments could be hard to take sometimes. "Well, anyway, I figure if I do a course in business administration, it'll do me good in my own business or working an office job. But the reason I'm telling you this, besides the fact that you're my friend, is that I'm going to need a bit of play in my hours, once classes start. I was thinking about starting this summer. The term starts at the beginning of June."

Sam smiled at me, and I could tell from his mind he felt a bit conflicted. He was happy for me, but sad that he wouldn't have as a big of a claim on me as he had. "I'm sure we can make it work. Once you figure out your classes, you let me know and I'll make the schedule work. I can't give you nights all the time, and I might have to cut your hours a bit, but we'll work something out.

I smiled at him, a little sad. I'd worked for Sam for years. He felt like family, and I the thought of not working for him made me sad. "Don't worry too much. Claudine left me enough that I can pay for my classes and live a few years without too many problems. I want to work as much as I can, but I know most of your girls only have this. There's a bit more." He nodded that I should continue. "Eric wants to hire me, maybe four or five times a month, to read his staff, sit in on meetings, things like that. Claudine didn't leave me enough that I can turn down the work."

Sam nodded, but I could tell he was a bit sad. "Well, you give us warning and we'll get your shifts sorted out. Don't let him drag you into any of his problems."

I hugged Sam, hard. He was so good to me. "Thanks, Sam. I told him I could only do it with enough notice. I better get my section set up." He waved me away and I went to get ready for the lunch rush.

I was absolutely exhausted when my shift finished, and starving. We'd been busy enough that I'd only managed a ten minute break, and hadn't had enough time to even grab some food. I was almost ecstatic when I walked into my house and smelled dinner. Claude and Dermot were sitting around the kitchen table eating lasagna. It was Dermot who spoke to me first. "Hello, Sookie. Take some food and sit with us."

Claude, being his usual self, just waved hello and went back to his food and glass of wine. I set about fixing myself a plate. There was lasagna and salad, so I took a bit of both, then I poured myself a glass of white wine. I'm not, as a rule, a big drinker, but I enjoy the odd gin and tonic or glass of wine, and I was tired enough that I felt I deserved it. Once I'd settled in and eaten a bit, I felt human enough for conversation. "So, what have you guys been up to? I feel like it's been a while since we've seen each other." It hadn't been that long, but being back in their calming influence was making me wonder how I'd stayed away as long as I had. I felt almost as relaxed as I had immediately post orgasm.

Dermot filled me in pretty quickly on what they'd gotten up to. "Claude had business to deal with in Monroe, and I observed at his club last night. Claude is a very good dancer. I am considering working for him for a time. He assures me I could make very good money doing that."

I tried not to choke on my wine. Jason wasn't going to like his doppelganger stripping at a club in Monroe. He would not be happy. Thankfully, it wasn't my problem. "That's great, Uncle. Claude, did you get everything taken care of that you needed to?"

"Yep. I had to do some payroll stuff, and I was dancing last night. I think Dermot and I are going to be moving back to my place tomorrow."

I kept a smile fixed to my face, even though I was really going to be lonely on my own. "That's great. So, Uncle Dermot, you're starting to feel more like yourself?"

He nodded, reaching out to stroke my hand. "Yes, niece. I would still like to visit with you when I can. We just don't want to be underfoot all the time. I know it must be hard for you, having a lover who is undead and having your fairy kin in your home."

Claude downed his drink and poured himself some more. "Plus I've got a lot going on at the club. Now that none of the fairies are going to try to kill you, I don't feel obligated to be here." Well, at least Claude was honest. Not tactful, but honest. "We're going to need to visit once a week or so, though. Otherwise we're going to miss you."

My smile was lopsided. "Well, we can't have that. You know where I am if you're feeling a yearning to be around family."

Claude nodded. "That is true. I think we'll head to my house in the morning, get out of your hair, as it were."

We finished our dinner, then watched TV for a bit before I said goodnight and headed to my room to read before I went to sleep. My cousin and uncle seemed happy to let me go to bed on my own, and I was glad to have a bit of time to myself. I felt like I hadn't had a minute alone in ages. I got ready for bed, then settled with a romance novel I'd been trying to make a bit of time to read for a while. As soon as I got to a particularly steamy bit, my cell phone rang. I sighed, then reached over and picked it up. I was pretty sure I sounded irritated as I said hello.

"Am I interrupting something, Sookie?" I couldn't tell if Eric was angry or trying out his best bedroom voice.

"No, I'm just reading a book before bed. How's your night been so far?"

"We're trying to decide who should replace Felicia as bartender."

I sighed. "At least I had nothing to do with her death. It probably shouldn't make me happy, but it does."

That made Eric chuckle. "Yes, no one is saying she fell to the Stackhouse curse. Are you well? You felt decidedly," he paused, "odd through the bond."

"Odd?" I asked, knowing damn well I'd been feeling decidedly horny, if anything. "I'm fine, just reading a book, probably going to try to catch up on some of the sleep I missed last night. I was nice to have coffee with you this morning." I was rambling, and Eric knew it.

"What are you reading?"

I looked at the cover of the book in my hand, the half-naked, very shiny man clutching a bosomy blonde, who had collapsed in a faint. I winced. "A, uh, romance novel." I wasn't going to tell him it was called 'Wooing Lady Blythe'. Some things he was just better off not knowing.

I half expected him to laugh, but it still irritated me when he did. "Is it any good?"

I shrugged, even though I knew he couldn't see me. "Not particularly. It's entertaining, but it's not high literature or anything."

"I've always loved erotic writing." Why did that not surprise me? "Next time you spend the night, I'll have to read you some of my favorites." He paused, as if he was thinking. "Is that where you got that very amusing term you once used for my cock? From one of these romance novels?"

"Not any specific one. But yeah, I guess I probably did. It seems like something I probably read once."

He laughed again. "I'm still offended you called me perfectly adequate. I think I've shown you I am far more than simply adequate."

"Do you really need me to stroke your ego, Eric?"

"I'd prefer it if you stroked my cock."

I was slightly shocked, and a little turned on, but his matter of fact statement. "Eric!"

"Were you going to play with yourself before you went to sleep, lover?" I sputtered, but I was too embarrassed to actually form words. "There's no reason to be embarrassed, Sookie. I know how much better you sleep after you've been thoroughly satisfied. I can't come to you tonight, but I would love to help in any way I can."

I wondered for a second if it was possible to die from blushing. If it was, I was going to find out soon. I couldn't say he was wrong, however, and if he wanted to help me out with his wonderfully seductive voice, I couldn't in good conscience say no. "How are you going to help me, Eric?" I couldn't keep my voice from becoming a bit breathy.

"Well, you could tell me what you were planning on doing to yourself, and I would tell you exactly what I would do to you if I was there."

I relaxed back into my pillows, sliding my pajama bottoms over my hips. "Well, I was going to finish reading this chapter." I paused, trying to work up my nerve and say what I wanted to say. "Then I was going to make myself come."

"How were you going to do that, Sookie?" He purred.

My libido was slowly winning out over my embarrassment. "I was going to touch myself, with my fingers."

"Touch yourself. Are you wet?" I followed his instructions, dipping a finger inside myself, then murmured assent. I was incredibly turned on, and his voice was doing crazy things to my heart rate. "I love how wet you get. I love putting my fingers inside of you, feeling you dripping on to me. I love running my tongue over you when you're wet, tasting you. What are you doing?"

Listening to his voice was like an aphrodisiac. "I'm fingering myself, and playing with my clit. I'm thinking about you, and what we did last night." I moaned slightly. "I'm wishing you were here. Using my hand is just not as fun as having sex with you."

"Yes, my own hand isn't feeling nearly as satisfying as your mouth did last night. I loved watching you sucking my cock, feeling it hit the back of your throat."

"You're jerking off? Where are you?"

He laughed, a low chuckle. "You think I could sit here and listen to you masturbate and not play with myself? I'm in my office. I have a meeting with one of Victor's lieutenants in twenty minutes, and I am very much enjoying this distraction. What are you wearing?"

I glanced at my ratty tweety bird sleep shirt. Some things were better left a bit mysterious. "A tee-shirt. What are you doing?"

"I'm running my hand up and down my very hard cock, listening to your breath catch while you finger yourself. I'm remembering how you tasted when I went down on you last night, the feel of you clenching around my fingers, how wet you got when you came. Did you like me playing with your ass?"

I was amazed at the effect his words were having on me. My breathing was heavy, and I'd never been so turned on while flying solo. "God, Eric, I'm so wet." The question he'd asked finally registered in my very addled brain. "Everything you did felt amazing." That was as specific as I felt comfortable getting. This whole dirty talk thing was new to me, but I was certainly enjoying it. "I wish you were here so I could suck you off then fuck you."

He actually grunted. "Sookie, you are such a treat. You are dangerously sexy. It's amazing I can get anything done with you in the picture."

My fingers were moving quickly over my clit, making me pant. "Last I checked, you were ditching work to have phone sex with me. God, I'm so close."

He growled softly into the phone. "Come for me. I want to hear you coming." I moved my fingers even faster, imagining his tongue licking my clit and felt myself tumbling over the edge. My hips bucked into my palm, and I couldn't help but moan into the phone. My cries were answered by a sort grunt and cursing in that language Eric used from time to time. After a few beats of silence, Eric spoke again. "I don't know how, but you even make masturbation better. You're amazing."

I was blushing again. "You were pretty great too. I've never done anything like that before."

Eric laughed. "It might amaze you, but I haven't had very much phone sex. Based on this experience, I certainly plan on doing this again, whenever you'd like."

I laughed, softly, my heart rate slowly returning to normal. "I guess you've never had a shortage of willing partners." Somehow, that didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Eric had been having sex for centuries. I'd seen his sex life in the minds of fangbangers, and even if three-quarters of them were imagining it, he really got around. It was part of who he was. For now, he was happy to just be with me, for whatever reason. That in itself was a bit mind-boggling.

"True. I wish I didn't have this meeting. I would love to be in your bed with you right now. Though you wouldn't get much sleep. What are your plans tomorrow night?"

"I'm working the dinner shift. I'm working Sunday too, but I've got Monday off and dinner Tuesday. I should go, and you've got your meeting in a bit. Wait, you seriously jerked off in your office?"

Apparently he found that pretty funny. "I've done a lot more than 'jerk off' in my office."

I shook my head. "Well, I'm tired, and should get to bed. I love you Eric."

"I love you as well." With that he was abruptly gone. I sighed. I really needed to get him to actually say good bye once in a while. I closed my book, put it on the night stand, turned off the light and closed my eyes, hoping for dreams of a certain tall blond.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope everyone liked this! I didn't intend to have any nookie in this chapter, but apparently Eric and Sookie had other ideas. Blame them. More plot to come soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** A bit short, but lots going on plot-wise. More to follow soon.

* * *

Claude and Dermot left the next morning, shortly after we had breakfast together. It was odd, having my house to myself again, and it made me miss Amelia. I wondered how her punishment work was going. After a few minutes of moping and feeling sorry for myself, I decided to clean. I wasn't too messy as a person, but Amelia was a true neat freak, and her absence showed around the house.

I did some laundry and vacuumed every room, changing the linens on every bed as I went, since they'd all been used, between Hunter, Claude and Dermot. That made for more laundry, which I started. Cleaning my former room reminded me of my cousin, so I called Remy and left a message that I was just checking in and wanted to arrange another play date for me and Hunter. In the middle of the afternoon, I got a phone call from Eric's new day guy, Martin Whitby. He was polite, and I asked how he was settling in, he made the appropriate noises in all the right places. He was, of course, calling for Eric, letting me know that the contract we'd spoken about had been drawn up and that Eric could use my services Sunday evening. I had to work Sunday, but Merlotte's closed at around eleven, so I told him I could be there around 12:30 or one. He got my banking information so they could pay me with direct deposit. Being one less errand for me, that suited me fine.

Once I got off the phone with him, I called the LSU admissions department to figure out what exactly they needed from me. The first thing I needed to get for them was a copy of my high school transcript, so I drove over to Bon Temps High and sat around in the office while one of the secretaries went to poke around the records room. I was lucky graduation was coming, otherwise no one would have been in the office on a Saturday. Forty-five minutes later, I had my copies which I would drop in Shreveport on Monday.

Seeing as I still had a couple of hours before work, I drove over to Wal-Mart and got a few odds and ends, plus a new bikini I hoped to break in the next morning. I went home, got everything put away and headed to Merlotte's.

When I got there I was immediately hit by weird mental vibes. People were angry and agitated, and I soon found out why. When I went to Sam's office to drop my bag, I immediately noticed he had a split lip and an eye that was starting to go black. "Sam! What happened?" I demanded.

He was opening and closing one fist repeatedly. "More protests. I think they were from Monroe. I had to kick out a couple and got sucker-punched before Kevin and Kenya showed up."

I laid one hand over his, and he took a deep breath before finally going still. "Everybody in the bar seems pretty riled up. Did you at least give as good as you got?" My smile was forced, but it was the best I could do.

He grinned back at me, though he didn't seem too happy, and shook his head. "No, I managed to keep my temper. Kevin arrested the guys who punched me." He noticed my eyebrows go up. "Yeah, two of them threw punches at me. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to press charges or not."

"You should," I told him, seriously. "It's a hate crime, Sam. People need to learn that the two natured are just normal, decent people, and that they can't get away with this kind of thing. I'm glad you didn't hit them. And you know everybody in town is on your side."

He sighed. "I know, Sook."

I patted his hand and went to the door. "I'll keep a bit of an eye on things while I'm working. If I hear anything, I'll let you know."

He nodded his thanks and I went to switch off with Holly, who settled at the bar with Hoyt to have a couple beers. Word about the altercation had spread quickly through town, and as a result, we were swamped. Half-way through my shift, my hand brushed Antoine's as he handed over an order and I realized he knew something.

Before he could jerk away, I clamped down on his wrist. Even though I hadn't had a recent infusion of vampire blood, I was still stronger than I looked, and Antoine couldn't pull free. The burger and fries clattered to the floor, drawing everyone's attention. After a few seconds, I let his hand fall from my grip, and nodded to Sam, who followed me into his office.

I started pacing even before he got the door closed. "Sam, it's my fault you're having these problems." He looked skeptical. "It is. It's that freaking Lattesta. People wouldn't come all the way from Monroe to our little town just to protest some small town shifter bar. It's not like there are no businesses owned by the two natured in Monroe." Sam nodded slowly. "He can't get to me anymore, so he's punishing me by hurting those I care about."

"What are you going to do about it?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea. I don't even know exactly what he's doing. He's not even in the state. Antoine just knows something's up, no specifics. Lattesta is pissed because Antoine doesn't know about you doing anything illegal, that would hopefully tie back to me. Antoine thinks Lattesta dropped your name to a few anti-shifter groups. Maybe I should try to find another job, Sam. I don't want to cause you grief."

"Sookie, calm down. It's not as bad as all that yet. I'm sure I would have had problems eventually. Maybe you should talk to Eric about this, see if he can find anything out. Or what about Claude? Maybe he knows how to get in touch with your great-grandfather."

I didn't know what Niall could do to help protect me from a vindictive FBI agent from the fairy world, but it was worth asking Claude. I had no idea what the heck Eric was going to do, but Sam pushed me towards the phone on his desk. I sighed and sat. "Claude's back in Monroe. He's working tonight."

Sam walked toward the door. "Try Eric first then. He probably knows how to get people to stop bothering you." The office door clicked shut as he left.

As Eric's cell rang, I wondered if I'd like any ideas Eric had for keeping Lattesta at bay. I was pretty sure his solutions would be of a permanent nature. "Shifter, this had better be important."

"Hey, Eric. How's it going?"

"Oh, Sookie. You're calling from the shifter's phone."

"Yeah, we're having some issues here, and I need your advice. Your night going alright so far?"

"Yes, I've just gotten to work. What issues are you having?"

"That FBI guy who's interested in me, Lattesta, he's harassing Sam since he can't get to me. Sam's having issues with protesters, that kind of thing." I had a thought. "You haven't been having any odd issues with humans, have you? I don't think he knows we're together, but if he finds out he's going to go after you." I cradled my head in my hands. "What am I going to do, Eric?"

I didn't particularly like dumping my problems in his lap, but I really needed a boyfriend right at that moment. "What exactly is going on?" I explained about the protests and what Lattesta had said to me when he'd shown up when Hunter had been visiting, and about Antoine working for him. "Well, he must have had an eye on you since immediately after Rhodes. You're sure there is no official way for him to go after you?" I mumbled a yes. "Your boss can deal with a few protesters. It was one of the risks the two natured faced about coming out. They have plans in place for that. You are going to need to adjust your hours if you're taking classes anyway. If it gets to the point where employing you is seriously risking his business, you can find more work with your gift, or live on your inheritance for a time. If I didn't know you would be unreasonable about it, I would offer to help you."

That got me to smile a bit. "Well, you know me, Miss Unreasonable. So you really think this is going to be okay?"

"I will talk to some of my people in Monroe, see what they know, but I'm sure it will be fine. Anything else going on?"

I sighed. "Claude and Dermott moved back to Claude's this morning. Martin called me, but I guess you know that."

"Yes, I am aware. Are you sad that you kin have left?"

I shrugged. "I guess. I like having my own space, but it does get lonely on my own. I've never lived by myself for more than a few months."

"Well, you do tend to pick up house guests like strays."

"Watch it, buddy. You're one of the 'strays', and you're the only one I actually picked up off the street." We both laughed slightly. "I should get back to work. Do you mind if I stay with you tomorrow night? I've got errands to run in Shreveport on Monday."

"That would be nice. "You're not working until Tuesday evening, yes?" I made an affirmative noise. "Let's do something Monday night then. Fangtasia is closed and I should have the night to myself. You can go home Tuesday."

"That sounds great, Eric. I'll see you tomorrow night." I heard a click as he hung up the phone, shook my head and went to finish my shift.

The next day passed without incident, and I even found time to try out my new bikini before heading to work for the short shift. Pretty much everyone hoped Sundays wouldn't be worth it, but Merlotte's was pretty busy. My shift passed quickly and without incident, and soon enough I found myself driving to Fangtasia to do a job for Eric, with a bag of clothes thrown on my back seat. It wasn't until I was half way there that I realized I had no idea what exactly I would be doing.

I'd done my best to look professional again, and I think I'd pulled it off pretty well, with a grey skirt, red, peep toed kitten heels and a short-sleeved white button down. I was glad I hadn't dressed casually when I was shown into Eric's office. He was seated at his desk, and two vampires I didn't know were lounging on the couch. "Ah, Sookie," he said, standing. "May I introduce Benoit and Annette. They have an issue with some humans and would like to use your services."

I nodded to both of them, keeping my face still even if I was slightly confused. I'd thought I was doing work for Eric, not some random vampires. "What's the trouble?"

Benoit was strikingly handsome, with close cropped dark hair and piercing green eyes. "We are about to enter into a business deal with a group of humans. Things seem a bit too good to be true, and it's not a situation where we want to be heavy handed with glamour." They both stood. Benoit's accent was pretty thick, some kind of European, and I figured he hadn't been in Louisiana all that long. "We have a meeting with three of them in half an hour."

I flicked my eyes to Eric. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to put me in a situation that would get me hurt or killed, but I really didn't like that I wasn't being given a choice. "Where is this meeting?"

"I'm lending them my office for an hour or so."

"That's very kind of you, Eric." I looked to the other two vampires. "If you would excuse us for a few minutes, Eric and I have some business to discuss." Eric nodded slightly and they filed out. I kept my voice low, not wanting any vamps to hear me. "What the hell, Eric?" He answered me with one arched eyebrow. "Who are these guy and what am I doing for them? I thought you needed me to do something. For you."

His voice was equally low. "These are people who live in my area, and asked for me to find a solution to their problem. You are that solution."

I really wanted to shout at him, but I knew that was a really bad idea. "What would you have done if I hadn't wanted to do more work for you?"

"We would have found another method, but likely after my people had gotten themselves into trouble. This way is much cleaner. I wouldn't involve you with anyone I didn't trust, or with something that you couldn't handle."

I narrowed my eyes. "We're not done talking about this."

"I never for a moment suspected we were." He stepped out from behind his desk and held out a hand. I took it and he pulled close and kissed me. When he spoke, he'd raised his voice to a normal level. "Let's have a look at your contract."

We spent a few minutes reading through it together. It seemed pretty straightforward, and even included an agreement that illegal activities discovered would be brought to the police if possible. I appreciated that, even if 'when possible' was very open to interpretation. He had included two rates, one for basic interviews and a higher rate for more in depth jobs, twice or agreed hourly rate. I gave him a hard look at that line. "I thought we had an agreement on my rates."

"The higher rate will apply to more difficult jobs, when you're expected to do more than simply passively observe."

"And what exactly will I be doing tonight?"

"You'll be directing the questioning, so Annette and Benoit will be paying your higher rate."

"And are you getting a cut? Some kind of finder's fee?"

"We have a separate arrangement." His tone was pretty final.

I just nodded. If they were willing to pay Eric as well, I didn't see any reason to complain. "Let's get this party started, then." He looked at me blankly. "The meeting, let's get it over with." He handed me a pen and I signed the contract.

When the other two vampires came back, they signed as well, then summoned three humans, two women and a man. As soon as I started talking to them I understood a bit better why they wouldn't want to turn these people's minds into Swiss cheese with glamour. They worked in the Parish Commission office, and would decide which points of legislation would be decided on by the Commission. Having these people on their side would be great for the vampires of Caddo Parish.

Benoit introduced me as an 'independent consultant' and said that I would be asking them questions about their other interests. I shook each person's hand slowly, trying to get a better feel for their minds. It took me a few minutes to feel comfortable talking to them, but they were pretty easy to talk to. Once we'd been chatting for an hour, without finding anything other than petty corruption, I asked to see them individually.

The two women were being honest. They were happy to put forward the occasional piece of legislation that would benefit Benoit, Annette and Eric's interests as long as they were well paid for it. One of the women was pregnant, though she was too early to show. I let the vamps know she'd be going on maternity leave at some point. I saw the man last, and he took the longest to let his guard down. When he did, I was a bit shocked. He'd just joined one of the anti-supe churches that were springing up since the two natured had revealed themselves. Under that got even weirder. He had a weird sexual fetish about vampires and supes in general, something he'd never actually acted out and was incredibly bitter and angry because of it. I got images from his mind that would never leave my head. Certain things I would never have even thought of doing to animals.

Once it was just vampires again, I told them about the issue they were going to have with fetish guy, going so far as to suggest that he might chill out a bit if he got to act on a few of his less extreme ideas. We exchanged nods and they left. "So," I asked Eric, "I've never met them before."

He nodded. "I know them from Europe. They've been here about a year. They run a twenty-four hour grocery in a neighborhood that is about to be rezoned, so they're trying to get the Commission to allow them to remain in business."

I nodded. "I'm not too happy with you, Eric, but I'm exhausted." It was about half past three in the morning and I'd been up since ten. "Do you have a lot to get done here still?" I stifled a yawn behind one hand.

"No, lover. Let's get you home."

* * *

**A/N:** Hope everything is believable. Yes, Sookie is going to yell at Eric, but I don't think she's stupid enough to do it where vamps she doesn't know at all are within hearing distance. It's also not a discussion she particularly wants to have in public. That's my justification.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** This chapter gave me a bit of trouble with Eric and Sookie trying to take the conversation places I just didn't want it to go. It's a bit shorter than normal, but there's also a fair bit of ESN, so I hope that makes up for it. I'm really trying to earn my mature rating here, folks! Lots more plot in the next chapter, and possibly some loving, if Eric and Sookie ever decide to shut up!

* * *

I woke to the feeling of cool lips kissing their way gently down my neck. My hips started moving without my consent, but after enjoying the sensation for a few seconds, I sat up, rubbing my eyes. I was still tired enough that I was pretty sure I hadn't slept the day away, but I had no way of knowing in Eric's light tight bedroom. "Eric, what time is it?"

He gently tugged me back down to the pillows. "Nearly dawn. You looked so enticing you were keeping me awake."

I pushed him away. "Don't you try and sweet talk me. I'm mad at you."

"But angry sex can be so much fun." I thought about that, remembering back to the moment Bill had found out about those Monroe vamps getting killed. My choices had been angry sex or die, so I'd chosen sex, and I had enjoyed it, but that wasn't the kind of angry I was feeling right now.

"You're not going to fix this with a quick fuck, Eric…"

He nuzzled into my neck to cut me off. "It doesn't have to be quick. I can stay up for an hour or so."

I just kept right on talking. "You deliberately misled me, and you put me in a weird position in front of vamps I didn't know. Since I didn't know them, I couldn't chew you out, and I'm sure that was deliberate." He sat up and rolled his eyes, but he seemed to be listening. "I said I would work for you, and that I wanted to be able to choose the jobs I did. You immediately got on your freaking sheriff high-horse and decided to do things exactly as you liked without so much as a by your leave. I am pissed, Eric!"

He stared at me for a few seconds before speaking. "Are you finished?"

That made me scowl. "Probably not!"

He waited, but I didn't say anything. Finally he started talking. "If there's one thing I remember from being a husband is that it is very unwise to go to bed angry. So, we will discuss this. I don't have that many direct dealing with humans. These people owe their loyalty to me, and they came to me for advice. Naturally, I thought of you. Their problem would quickly become my problem, and I saw a way of heading issue off before they arose. I knew you would start arguing about it, so I decided that we may as well have the argument after all was said and done. You agreed to do work for me, this was work for me, whether you see it that way or not. These are vampires in my area, and thus the work was for me, which you agreed to."

I was still glaring at him, even if he was being slightly reasonable. "How come I've never seen them at the bar, if they've been here for a year?"

"Not everyone works for me so directly. Since they have their own, very lucrative, business, they only come to be displayed once a month or so. You don't come to the bar often enough to know every vampire who lives in the area." He seemed thoughtful for a second. "In fact, I think they were there when you came in to ask for a bartender for your boss."

That made me think for a moment. There were usually about ten to fifteen vamps in Fangtasia, and Eric was right, I never really knew them all. I usually only counted vamps by feeling the voids, maybe followed by a quick glance around. That particular night, I'd been pretty distracted. He could have been right. "Fine. Why did you feel like you needed to take me up on my offer to work for you so quick? I'm not that desperate for money."

"It is important that we are seen to be working together harmoniously." I was getting an odd feeling through the bond. It took me a few seconds to puzzle it out, but Eric was being deliberately evasive.

That made me think. What was Eric's biggest issue at the moment? Victor Madden. And Victor Madden was pissed that Eric had his own personal telepath at his beck and call. So Eric was flaunting me. He watched me as carefully as if he was reading my thoughts as they flicked through my brain. "Are you trying to deliberately piss of Victor?" He nodded, smiling slightly. "You, what, want him to be forced into making a move on you?"

Now he grinned. "It really is a shame you don't want to be turned. You would do so well as a vampire."

My breath hitched. Should I tell him I wasn't sure that, in the long run, I was so against being a vampire. I certainly didn't want to be turned right now, and there were so many unknowns. What would happen to my telepathy? What would I do with myself? Who would turn me? What would happen to us if he did? Was I even really considering it? Maybe once I had a degree, or better prospects, it would seem more reasonable. Of course, if I had a career based around my telepathy, what would I do if I lost it when I was turned? I was getting ahead of myself. "I look terrible without a tan."

Eric chuckled softly, and I didn't particularly like the way he was looking at me. I was pretty sure he knew I wasn't saying everything I wanted to say, but he didn't press the issue. I was thankful for that, at least.

I turned back to our discussion. "Why are you baiting Victor?"

Eric grinned, showing me the tips of his fangs."It will force him to act on his plans before he is ready, which will swing the advantage in my favor. If he is less ready, he is more likely to make mistakes, which will be to our advantage."

"So basically you're showing off your wonderful little telepath so Victor starts drooling and jumps the gun on, what, his plan to take me, kill you?"

"Something like that. I don't know his exact plans, but if he acts before he is ready we should be able to defeat him."

I snorted. "Well, that seems like a really good idea. I was pretty tired of living, anyway."

Eric's face turned serious. "Sookie, we're all in danger when it comes to Victor. I am still convinced Felipe does not know about whatever Victor intends to do. If I had to make a guess, I would say he intends to break from Nevada and try to take Louisiana for himself."

I sat and thought for a bit, trying to remember those ridiculous names the vamps had for the sections of the country. "Do you think he's talking to some of the other kings and queens of, what's this section again, Amen?"

"Amun. If he is, he's being very quiet about it. He has to be, since Felipe has spies in several kingdoms now. If I can find evidence of his treachery, I will take it to Felipe. That will secure my position in his organization, and remove someone who wishes to harm us."

Eric fell silent, and I sighed. "Do you think he might have told his plans to anyone I could get a read on?"

"I very much doubt it. Your abilities, and their limits, are fairly widely known. Victor isn't stupid." He settled in next to me. "I don't think there is anything more to be accomplished by further discussion. Victor will know I am using your abilities, and he will become even more jealous. We have to wait for him to make a move." He kissed my neck. "What errands do you need to run during the day?"

I shrugged. "I have to drop a copy of my high school transcript at LSU, and talk about taking some placement exams. I'm meeting with an admissions person to discuss a few things, like what classes I would want to take, figure out a schedule, that kind of thing."

He smiled slightly. "Have you decided upon a course of study?"

I shook my head slightly. "I'll probably just get the general requirements out of the way first, but I'm thinking about doing business administration. It'll help me if I make the telepathy consulting thing my main job, or I could use it for something else. I've got some time to decide, I think. I've got a bunch of general required classes to get out of the way, like math and English."

He nuzzled into my hair. "I've left my house keys out for you. Did you need me to set an alarm?"

I shook my head slightly. "I set my phone. You're like a cat, with all the rubbing."

He laughed and rubbed against me a bit more. "I like cats. They're very proud creatures. It's an attitude I admire." He kissed me gently. "Are you done being mad at me, then?"

I sighed heavily. "I suppose so. Doesn't being right all the time get boring?"

"Not at all. I love being right." He kissed me again, deeply. "I want you before I rest."

I grinned, biting my lower lip gently. "I guess you better take me then."

Before I could blink, he was on top of me, kissing my neck, running his teeth over the shell of my ear. One of his hands moved between my legs and I groaned at the sensation. "God you're good at that. I feel like an addict getting a hit." I might not be a big drinker or drug user, but working in a bar had let me see into the minds of enough alcoholics getting that first sip to know how it felt. Eric's fingers inside of me felt like the coolest, cleanest spring water to someone dying of thirst. _Heaven_.

"Good thing I don't plan on denying you then. Wouldn't want you going through withdrawal." His fingers moved wonderfully, horribly slowly and I bucked my hips to try and make him speed up and stop teasing me. "Patience lover. What is that saying? Good things come to those who wait?" On the word 'come' he started moving one finger over my clit, infuriatingly slowly. "And I do love watching you come. Perhaps I'm slightly addicted to you as well. I could play with you from dusk until dawn and not tire of it. Perhaps I will soon." He slipped a third finger inside me and I moaned. "I am going to play with your ass. I very much enjoyed that the other day, and so did you." I gasped as one of his fingers stroked over that opening. I was shocked at how much that slight bit of pressure in such a taboo area turned me on.

He grabbed something I couldn't see, and I gasped as something cool and wet touched my ass. "What are you doing?"

"It's just a baby wipe." Something even wetter touched me. "And that is a little bit of lubrication. It makes it easier for me to play with you. I am going to tell you exactly what I'm doing to you. Does that sound fun?" I nodded frantically. I was so turned on, it wasn't even funny. "You are dripping wet for me, Sookie. Is just the thought of me playing with your ass turning you on?" His finger moved over that entrance, rubbing softly back and forth, making my hips buck into him. I felt a very slight sensation of stretching and moaned. "I've put the tip of my finger in your ass, and I'm going to slowly slide it inside of you."

I groaned as he did just that. I had no idea that part of my body was so wonderfully sensitive. I felt like I was lit up like a Christmas tree. I gasped out a question. "How much of your finger is inside me?"

"Just a little bit, the first joint. I'm going to put a bit more in you, just the next joint." I nodded, gasping as he did so. He was driving me insane, with his words, his slow progression. I didn't think I'd ever been so worked up in my life.

If I hadn't been so incredibly turned on, I probably would have been embarrassed, but I didn't have it in me to care. "Are you going to fuck my ass?"

His chuckle was low and throaty. "No. Maybe eventually, if you want me to, but that's something that has to be worked up to if you want it to be pleasurable rather than painful. I don't usually like pain with my sex. I do, however, enjoy pleasure." His finger pushed deeper inside of me and I groaned. "I especially like watching your pleasure. Play with your clit while I finger your ass."

I knew Eric enjoyed watching me come, just from how he frequently asked me to look at him during sex, but he'd never been quite so blatant about it. I quickly complied, dipping a finger inside of myself to draw some of my copious moisture up to my hard nub. Just touching my clit made me jump slightly, I was so tightly wound. I groaned, reveling in all the sensations, feeling my orgasm building low in my abdomen. "I'm going to come, Eric."

"Good. I want to feel your ass clamp down on my finger as you come. Then I want to fuck you. I am so hard for you, Sookie." The low, throaty words, combined with the work both our hands were doing, pushed me over the edge, and I came, screaming. White flashes invaded my vision, and the wonderful, pulsing heat that centered in my abdomen spread throughout my body. I jerked and shuddered, my hand forgotten as Eric used both of his to draw my orgasm out, making me scream in pleasure. His hands finally stilled and disengaged from me, and I realized that I had tears running down my cheeks as I laughed and twitched.

"Holy shit, Eric." My legs continued twitching as he ran his hands over my thighs. He reached out and grabbed another couple baby wipes, to clean me and his hands. I jerked away from the cold wetness, but didn't have enough presence of mind to actually move away from him.

His hands were gentle as he cleaned me up. "You are amazingly beautiful when you come, Sookie."

I wiped the tears from my face and grinned at him, pulling him in for a kiss. "I don't think I've ever come so hard in my life, Eric. That was amazing." Feeling the strength slowly returning to my muscles, I pushed him on to his back. "I want to watch your face as you come." I settled myself over him, then took him inside of me. He groaned and I gasped, still especially sensitive after an orgasm that had shaken me to the core.

My movements were a bit jerky, without a real rhythm, and Eric started to help me, his hands moving my hips up and down. Once I found the right pace, I lost myself in moving on top of him, not noticing that I'd taken control back. I moaned and moved more quickly, feeling the beginnings of another orgasm. "Oh, Christ, Eric, I'm going to come. Please bite me."

Before I could register him moving, I was on my back and he'd lifted one of my legs so he could push even deeper inside of me. I screamed, feeling my walls begin to contract around him. My orgasm pushed him to his own, and he roared, biting into my breast as he thrust as deep as possible and came, then collapsed. After a few seconds, I nudged him to get him off of me. He didn't move and I wiggled out from under him, then laughed. He'd died for the day.

I shook my head slightly and snuggled next to my sleeping vampire, feeling more than exhausted enough to get a bit more sleep before starting my day.

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**A/N:** If you enjoyed it please review. I'll send along the way their conversation originally went, which may or may not get worked into the next chapter. Yes, I am completely shameless and resorting to bribing you for reviews. You know you like it.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It really made my day. If you didn't, worry not. The conversation made it into this chapter. I'm glad everyone likes what I'm doing so far, and I hope you keep liking it. I did actually take the time to research LSU Shreveport. They have relaxed admission standards for people over 25, that's why Sookie is able to basically just register for classes. I also chose her classes based on what I see as feasible majors for her, and her timetable is based on times for actual classes I looked up. I know, I'm anal, but I hate when people get things wrong about my Alma Mater in fan fic (and people use NYU way too much) so I didn't want to do that to someone else. I did take a few liberties with which classes are being offered this summer, but hey, it's a few years ago in book time so I figured I was allowed! Anyway, I hope it seems realistic and that you guys like it.

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My alarm got me up around eleven, and it was a struggle to get out of bed. Part of this was that I was still pretty tired, and part of it was that I was tightly wrapped in Eric Northman. I guessed he'd woken up slightly at some point, because he was snuggled about as close to me as was physically possible. It took a few minutes, and some sharp prodding, but I eventually made my escape and got showered and dressed.

I made myself coffee and resolved to pick up a few things at the grocery store before I came back. There were a few things in the freezer, but a microwaved lean cuisine really didn't appeal as breakfast. I also wanted some milk or cream for my coffee, but for the moment was simply dealing with drinking it black. Of course, Eric didn't have any pots or pans, so whatever I wound up getting would need to be eaten raw. I sighed, made a face and slugged down most of my coffee.

It only took me about fifteen minutes to get to LSU, and I had a nice long talk with an admissions lady. She went over what core requirements I needed, then told me we might as well get my placement exams over and done with. I was nervous, but got it over with quickly. I was happy I hadn't completely forgotten everything I'd learned in high school, and was able to place out of the first level math and English classes. While I didn't declare my major, I was enrolled as a student in the Business school. My hands shook as I wrote a check to pay my tuition.

The lady, Mary-Ann, showed me how to log into the school computer system and set me up with an email account before helping me register for English Composition II, the Freshman seminar for business students, an Algebra class and a computer class that taught you to use business related programs, like spreadsheets, databases and word processing. She even took me to the bookstore and showed me how to use my id card to get a printout of my textbook list, and walked around with me to help me find the books I needed. She left me with a full basket and a handshake, wishing me good luck and reminding me that I'd be getting an email from an advisor in my department, and that I'd have to set up a meeting to get my fall schedule approved. I could have kissed her. Even her thoughts were warm and friendly, simply happy to help me get settled.

All of that took a couple hours, and afterwards I went to a big stationary store to buy notebooks, pens, pencils and highlighters. I even got a big pack of index cards to help me study for tests. I threw in a pack of invitations so I could start organizing Tara's baby shower. When I got back to my car, I had to sit for a few minutes and just take everything in. I'd gone from being a waitress with no real prospects to being a college student in an afternoon, and I was a bit overwhelmed.

Since I knew my schedule, I figured I should call Sam. He picked up the bar phone, then asked me to hold while he went to his office. "So, Sook, how's your day off?"

I smiled. "Pretty good. I was just over at LSU. I've got my summer schedule."

"What's it look like?" he asked.

I looked over the printout again. "I've got class Monday to Thursday, from 10:30 to 3:20, from June 1st to July 31st. I don't know my schedule for the fall yet, but the term starts at the end of August."

Sam was silent for a minute or two, and I figured he was looking at the calendar he marked everybody's shifts on. "Alright, I think we can pretty much make something work. You're going to be down on hours for the summer, if that's okay."

I nodded to myself. "That should be fine. Eric will probably have a few jobs for me, and I've got the money Claudine left me if things get tight. If it's not too much trouble, could we keep me around twenty hours a week, for the first half of June at least? I want to see how I get on with my courses and homework and stuff."

He laughed a little. "Sure Sook. I've had a couple older high school girls drop off applications for summer work, so it won't be a problem. You excited for classes? What are you taking?"

I grinned and told him briefly. "I even got all my text books today, and I just picked up a bunch of notebooks and stuff. It's going to be funny to be a student again."

I could tell Sam was smiling by the tone of his voice. "I'm really happy for you, Sook. I better get back to the bar. See you tomorrow night, alright?"

"Sure thing, Sam. And thanks, for everything." That taken care of, I headed to the grocery store, since it was getting late and I hadn't eaten anything other than coffee. I got milk and cereal, and a bunch of fruit. After that, I headed back to Eric's and ate two bowls of cereal and a big mug of coffee with cream. He was still out for the day, so I decided to start poking through my new textbooks. The algebra looked like it was going to give me the most trouble, so I opened one of my new notebooks and started working my way through the first couple chapters.

I was going through the quadratic equation when I started getting hungry again. I went to the kitchen and pulled a mango from the fridge. I made two cuts around the pit, leaving most of the fruit in the skin so it was easy to eat, popping both halves on a plate before nibbling the bit of fruit left around the pit. I took my plate back to the living room and went back to the algebra. I was surprised at how late it had gotten, since Eric strolled out while I was eating the second half of the mango.

He smiled at me when I looked up from my notebook. "Oh, hey. Sorry, I got caught up looking at my textbooks. I meant to come snuggle with you before you got up."

"That's alright lover. What are you doing?"

I laughed. "Algebra. I haven't looked at this stuff since high school, so I figured I'd brush up a bit. I'm starting summer classes June 1st."

He sat down on the ground next to me and started poking through my textbooks. I took another bite of my mango, then started solving a quadratic. Eric sniffed curiously. "What are you eating? It smells nice."

Eric was a lot more chilled out than Bill had been about food. "It's mango." He looked slightly puzzled. "Uh, it's a tropical fruit."

He nodded slightly. "The only thing I do regret about not being alive in this age is that there are so many more foods these days. When I was alive, we ate whatever was available, and if there was nothing available, we went hungry." He leaned in to kiss me when I put down the mango. "I like that. It tastes of sweetness and the sun."

I laughed and shook my head. "What did you eat?"

He thought for a second. "Fish, most of the time. It was dried or salted to keep, but salt was expensive, so drying was more common. We had cattle, so we had beef sometimes. Wales would beach themselves, and we would eat that. Sometimes we would hunt them, if they came close to shore, by chasing them onto the beaches. If the season was right, we had fruit. I liked blackberries and raspberries very much, and apples. For vegetables, we had carrots and," he paused. "I don't know the word in English, but they were like carrots, but white. They were good in stews."

"Potatoes?" I guessed.

He frowned. "No, those came from the new world, from South America. I never had those. These were the same shape as carrots, maybe a bit fatter."

"Parsnip?"

He shrugged. "That could be it. In the spring and summer we had greens, but those did not keep long. In the winter we ate whatever could be dried. From the cows and goats we had milk, and butter and cheese. We didn't really drink the milk, like you do today. It didn't keep long enough, so we usually made it into something else. We had some grains, like barley, but not much bread. We ate porridge sometimes. We drank a lot. We drank a lot of ale, sometimes mead, you know, from honey. Not too much water. I was probably slightly drunk for most of my life." He laughed and shook his head. "Did you have a good day? You went to the store?"

I tried to imagine what life would have been like for Eric, and what it was like to look back that far, to remember the people he'd known, the things he'd done. It was hard to imagine a thousand years passing me by. "Uh, yeah, I got some cereal, and milk, and some fruit. I got my textbooks, obviously." I gestured to the books strewn over the low table. "I'm all registered for my summer courses. They start in about a month. I haven't declared a major yet, since I can't decide between business administration and marketing, but the first two years are the same for both, so I've got some time to figure it out. I think I'm going to try to finish the degree in three years."

"Can you do that? I thought most degrees took four years in this country."

I nodded. "If I take courses this summer and next summer it should be fine." I started picking up my books. Eric picked up the printout of my schedule and read it over.

"If you want to stay here on the nights you have classes, you can. It will be a shorter drive for you in the mornings." He handed me the paper and I tucked it into the algebra text.

"Sometimes I might." I finished putting the books back into my shopping bags. "It depends what my work schedule is like. So, what do you want to do on your night off?"

He grinned at me. "We could always go bowling. I haven't been in over a decade, but I always found it fun."

I shook my head stiffly. Even the sight of bowling shoes reminded me of my uncle. I hated to even set foot in a bowling alley. "I don't bowl."

He frowned at me. "What's wrong? You're upset."

I shrugged. I figured as my sexual partner, I should probably tell Eric about being abused, but it was difficult to bring up, and awkward to discuss. "Look, I need you to not make a big deal about this, alright?" He was still frowning, but he nodded. "I was molested by my uncle when I was little. He was big into bowling."

Eric went very still. "What is his name?"

I laughed. "Nice try Eric, but Bill killed him. He was a heck of a lot more subtle about it as well. Uncle Bartlett never raped me, but he was working his way up to it, and I could see that in his head. It took me a while to get someone to believe me, but my Gran kicked him out of our life once I told her."

He seemed a bit out of his depth, so I smiled slightly. He reached out to touch me, but his hand dropped before it reached me. "I am glad he is dead."

That made me laugh. "Yeah, me too. But basically, I don't like bowling. We could go out dancing. I know you spend every night in a bar, but it could be fun to go to one you don't own, sort of check out the competition."

He laughed. "Perhaps. While we are on the subject of difficult conversations, there is something I want to discuss with you. When I made a joke about turning you this morning, you got very uncomfortable. I was only joking. I know how you feel about being turned, and I will respect your wishes."

I sighed. "That's not exactly it, Eric." He stared at me, and I struggled to continue. I figured I should at least let him know my wishes had changed slightly. "Look, Eric, you know how I said I didn't want to be turned, even if I was dying?" He nodded, and the way he was looking at me made me a bit uncomfortable. "Well, if it comes to a choice between death and being a vampire, I'd rather be a vampire."

He looked slightly shocked, and I had no idea what I was feeling through the bond. "It's always a choice between death and being a vampire."

I punched him lightly in the arm. "I meant in a more immediate way. Can't we drop this? Come on, we're trying to decide on what to do tonight."

I thought for a second that Eric was going to actually do what I asked, but I was completely wrong. "No. We are going to discuss this. What has made you change your mind?"

I sighed. "I haven't changed my mind. I just figure that if I'm going to die anyway, why not get turned? If I hate it completely, I can always choose to meet the sun. I came far too close to dying with the torture twins and really, when it was staring me in the face, point blank, I didn't like it. I'm thinking through a lot of things, trying to find some kind of career. I need to get all of that sorted out before I can really start to think of the long term. I just figured you should know, in case I get myself into a situation where you let me die instead of turning me."

He took a few minutes to just stare at me. "You do frequently wind up in those situations." I nodded. "How long have you been thinking about changing your mind?"

I sighed. "I haven't changed my mind, Eric. God, you're like a dog with a bone. I shouldn't have mentioned it."

He laughed. "Sookie, I've been alive for over a thousand years." I didn't point out that he wasn't actually alive. That seemed pretty tactless. "Your human lifespan will pass very quickly for me. Every time I see you, I think about what I will do when I lose you. It would be nice to not have to think about that."

I frowned at him. "It's not like we'd be together forever if I got turned. Heck, I don't even know that we'd be together forever if I stay my mostly human self. We've only been dating for a few months." I sighed. "And what about the whole vampire marriage thing? What happens with that if someone turns me?"

Eric brushed a strand of hair from my face. "I don't like the idea of 'someone' turning you. Let us be very clear. If you decide to be turned, you will come to me first. We will discuss it. If you decide for whatever reason you don't want to have me as maker, you will talk to Pam. I wouldn't trust anyone else to turn you. As to our marriage, which you continue to ignore, it will continue. Since we made no stipulations as to length, we will be married until one of us finally dies, or we decide to dissolve the union. I know that you've been told vampires do not remain with their makers for long, but a new vampire will stay with his or her maker for at least a few decades. I stayed with Appius for two hundred years. Bill stayed with Lorena for about eighty. Pam was with me for over a hundred, and now she is back, though she has much of her own life. Even if we stay together for the rest of your human life, we will have fifty or sixty years at the very most. I am not suggesting you turn soon. If you take my blood every once in a while you won't age as rapidly. It is just comforting that you're willing to consider the option."

I sighed. "I'm not sure, Eric. I will let you know, if I ever make a decision."

"That's all I ask lover." He brushed a kiss across my lips. "So, you want to go dancing." The tips of his fangs showed as he smiled. "I would like to propose a compromise." I arched an eyebrow. "There is a fair in Bossier City tonight. Rides, games of chance, music. It will be fun and I won't need to put on a suit."

I looked at him incredulously. "You like carnival rides?"

He shrugged. "It is something to do, and these events occur mostly in darkness. There are many things I can't do, because I am limited by the night. It's only recently that the widespread use of electricity made night time activity more widespread. Do you dislike these types of things?"

I shook my head. "No, Eric, I like carnivals and roller coasters. I just always thought it would be a bit tame for you."

He grinned. "Come. Let's get changed and go. If we stay here any longer I'm going to decide you need to be chained to my bed for the foreseeable future."

That made me shiver, and I thought about suggesting we do that instead, but I rose and followed him, excited for an honest to god date with Eric Northman.

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**A/N:** So, yeah, hope that was enjoyable. Next chapter will see some interesting times coming up. Hope everyone is liking and please reward the fingers I'm working to the bone for you with reviews! Oh, for my snippets of viking diet and what not, I usually turn to the Viking Answer Lady. Google knows her, and she's pretty cool. Sometimes I dredge up things I learned living in York (Jorvik to the vikings) and spending far too much time hanging about viking museums. I probably make mistakes, but hopefully nothing too glaring!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Lots of plot here. There's an A/N at the end where I kind of go into my reasons for how characters have reacted. Feel free to skip it!

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Two hours later found me clutching at my stomach and Eric's arm, trying not to laugh myself sick. He'd been quietly making fun of two rednecks, and had moved on to trying to get me to go on the Zipper with him, which was basically a hellish version of a Ferris Wheel, with cars that flipped and rolled as they moved up in a narrow oval. If that wasn't enough the oval itself would then start rotating. I stopped laughing long enough to shoot him a glare. "I don't get it, Eric. You can fly. How can that thing be entertaining?"

He took my hand, dragging me towards the ride. "Because it is fast and unpredictable. Flying takes a huge amount of effort. Anyway, you've seen me drive. Of course I like moving fast. Come on, I will make it worthwhile for you."

I sighed, giving in. "Fine, but we're waiting in line. No more glamour. That poor man at the fun house is going to take days to recover." His mind had been completely unfocused, like he'd been whacked with a bat. I tugged Eric, who actually looked sulky, towards the line. He quickly made up for the fact that we were waiting by wrapping his arms around my waist, and leaning down to get his mouth close to my ear.

His breath was cool on my cheek as he spoke. "You have no idea what I'm going to do with you when I get you home. I think the first thing we are going to need to do is get into the shower together. I have some very wonderful memories of being in the shower with you." I shivered against him, and he leaned further in to kiss my neck. "Very pleasant memories. I want to relive each and every one of them with you." I could feel him smiling against my neck, the tips of his fangs poking out of his lips. "Those were very helpful memories when I couldn't see you after the takeover." His hips ground into my lower back. "_Very_ helpful."

Suddenly, Eric tensed and stood up straight, turning around and using one arm to keep me behind him. I tried to peek around him, but he was having none of it, using his considerable strength to prevent me from moving. After a second, I dropped my mental shields to try and figure out what the heck was going on. I was inundated by thoughts from the humans that surrounded us, in line and in the general crowd, but I could also feel the mental void of Eric, along with two others. Now I stiffened. Eric nodded to the two vampires I couldn't see. "Bianca, Mark. How is Victor doing?"

I still couldn't see the two vampires but the humans around me could, so I got a mental picture of them. Bianca was tall, probably about five ten, with waist-length coal black hair and bright green eyes. Mark was the same height, with short brown hair and a close cropped beard. I heard a female voice, with a neutral, news anchor type accent. "He's fine. He sent us up to have a look around, see if we can't find out what happened to Bruno and Corinna. I think we're going to have to assume they're dead. The police here refused to let us have a look at their car."

I saw Eric nod slightly. "I'll have my day man make some calls." I still had my shields down, and sifting through all the thoughts, trying to find anything of use was really difficult. Pretty much everyone just thought the three vampires were beautiful, and were wondering what it would be like to sleep with them or be bitten, or both. Suddenly, I dropped straight into the snaky feeling of a vampire mind, and the bottom of my stomach dropped out. Years of practice kept my face still, but I knew Eric could feel my sudden turmoil through the bond. His arm that had been holding me back went around my shoulder and he pulled me close, so I was standing next to him. He still spoke to the two vamps I could now see. "Allow me to introduce my wife. Sookie, this is Mark and Bianca. They are part of Victor's retinue in New Orleans."

I nodded to both vamps, trying to keep my emotions in check as I heard everything going through Mark's mind, digging through everything as best I could. I was going to have to tell Eric about this, and he was going to figure out pretty quick how I'd learned the information. "Good evening to you both. Are you enjoying your visit to Shreveport?" I clung to my manners like a life raft. They were the only thing keeping me afloat.

Bianca showed me her fangs as she looked me up and down. "Oh yes, we're finding it very enjoyable." I could feel Eric getting angry, and I stroked the small of his back very slightly with my thumb, trying to calm him down. "We'd very much appreciate if you made those calls, Eric. We'll be in town a few more days. We'll let you two get back to your evening." They both smiled, then simply nodded, turned and walked slowly through the crowd.

Eric kept a tight grip on my shoulder, and I could feel anger coming off him in waves. Finally he spoke, his accent becoming more prominent. "They wanted to tell me I'm being watched. I'd suspected it, but I hadn't been certain." He shifted his grip to my wrist and started pulling me along. "We need to go home. I need to talk to Pam."

I stayed silent until we were driving back to Eric's, and he picked up his phone, presumably to call Pam. I pulled it from his hands and made sure he hadn't dialed before I opened my mouth. "Eric, I need to tell you something." He glanced at me, probably annoyed that I'd taken his phone, but nodded for me to go on. I took a huge breath. Eric loved me, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't kill me if I told him this secret, but I honestly wasn't completely positive. I took a few seconds to collect my thoughts. "You remember the trial in Rhodes?" He nodded. I didn't think he'd been likely to forget it, but it gave me a place to start. "Remember how I said I heard the lawyer's thoughts, about Sophie-Anne wanting to kill Henrik." Eric's driving was making me really nervous, and if anything he was going faster. I gulped, and gripped my seatbelt. "Well, I didn't." I was glad I was holding on to my seatbelt, because as soon as the words were out of my mouth, he whipped through traffic and sped down an off ramp, practically putting the car on two wheels.

I just stared at him, panting slightly, as he drove down a deserted road, taking sharp turn after sharp turn. I was completely surprised when he turned into his development. I'd had no clue that's where we'd been going. "Do not say another word until we are inside." I just nodded, dumbly. His driving had frightened the life out of me, and I couldn't make head or tails of the emotions I was getting through the bond. Once we were through the gate, he drove much more normally.

When we got to his house, he dragged me into the kitchen, not even giving me time to kick off my shoes at the door, something he normally insisted on. After dropping me at the kitchen table, he flashed through the door to the rest of the house at vampire speed. He was back a few seconds later, and sat across from me. "So," he said, studying me carefully. "You didn't hear Henrik's lawyer. The logical conclusion must be that you heard the news directly from Henrik." I nodded. "Has this happened often?" I shook my head. "I want specifics, Sookie."

I was slightly afraid. Eric wasn't normally this cold with me. "I don't know, Eric. It doesn't happen that much. Once every couple months I'll get a flash or two. Maybe two minutes of seeing into a vampire's brain at a time." He arched an eyebrow and I sighed, trying to remember who I'd heard over the last couple years. "Well, I got a flash of Bills emotions, the second time I had his blood, but not really thoughts exactly. I, uh, heard you when I went to Fangtasia to read your employees. I heard Stan Davis when I first met him. When you came to see Bill at my house once, I heard you. I heard Henrik, at the trial. I heard Gervaise in Rhodes once too. I heard Felicia once, and Clancy. Just flashes, nothing of substance. I can't remember who else. I try to forget it as soon as it happens."

Eric stared at me for a few seconds before nodding. "Alright. I have to assume you heard something from Bianca or Mark. Since you are telling me this, after years of keeping it secret, I can only assume you heard something important."

I nodded, and sighed. "Mark knows Victor's plan, or at least some of it. He's making it look like you're embezzling money from Felipe. When Bruno was here, he glamoured Bruce, your accountant, and they've linked you to a fake account. They're going to expose this in three nights. Victor is going to demand to be allowed to kill you, then plans to take me."

Eric didn't say anything, just picked up the phone and started dialing. After a second or two, he spoke."Pam, come to me now. Bring Bruce." He clicked the phone off and looked at me again. "I am going to have to tell Pam about this. She will not hurt you, but no other vampire can find out this information." He stood, got a blood from the fridge and popped it in the microwave. Seeming to remember that I might want something he asked, "Are you thirsty?" I nodded, and he filled a glass with water before placing it in front of me. I was staring at my hands, clenched in my lap, and he lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. "It will be alright. It is good that you told me what you heard. Felipe would likely have killed me, regardless of the truth of the accusations. Now, if we are careful, we may be able to turn the tables on Victor, so to speak."

I nodded, very slightly, and sighed. "I wouldn't have told you if it hadn't been important. It's not exactly something I want anyone to know about."

He managed a short laugh. "That is understandable. This is very dangerous." I sipped my water slowly. "You heard me twice?"

I put my glass down. "Yeah, maybe a couple other times. Sometimes I can't tell if I'm getting an emotion through the bond, or maybe hearing you a little. I don't really know. It's not like I try to hear you or anything."

He sipped his blood, then reached out to take my hand, his thumb gently stroking my palm. "We will discuss this further later. Pam is approaching. I will explain the situation to her." I just nodded. "Sookie, do not be afraid. I love you, and I will do my best to keep you safe." I didn't tell him that he couldn't always keep me safe, that I attracted trouble like flowers attracted bees. It wasn't worth mentioning,

Two minutes later, Pam walked in. We all kicked off our shoes before Eric led us to the living room. Pam sat in a chair, I was in one corner of the couch, with Eric placing himself in a position that would allow him to easily step between me and Pam. Bruce went to the other end of the couch.

Pam didn't say anything, she just looked to Eric and waited for him to begin. I took the moment to start snooping around in Bruce's mind. For the moment, he was just focused on things like, _Oh, shit, what the hell have I done? I hope they don't kill me. Is the money really worth this kind of stress? Oh, shit, what could it possibly be?_ I was going to need to question him, and probably touch him to even figure out what information was hidden behind glamour. Eric looked at Pam, then me. "There has been a development." Pam arched an eyebrow. "It appears Sookie has a secret. It needs to remain a secret." I figured Bruce would be glamoured before he left. Pam just nodded very slightly. "Occasionally, her talent extends to our kind."

Pam hissed and jumped out of her chair, but she didn't lunch at me like I was half expecting. She started pacing, pausing after a few lengths of the living room to glare at me. "Have you been poking around in my mind then, telepath?"

"Jesus Christ, Pam! Of course not! I don't poke around in my friends' minds!" Not if I could help it anyway. Her face softened slightly. "I've never heard anything from you."

She nodded and looked back to Eric. "Wewere out tonight and Bianca and Mark bumped into us. They were less than subtle about letting me know I was being followed. Lucky for us, Sookie overheard their plans." He gestured tome to explain.

"Well, I don't know all the details. I heard Mark thinking about how much he was going to enjoy helping Victor take Eric down, that the plan was genius, that kind of thing. Then he actually thought about specifics for a few seconds. Bruce, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you were glamoured into helping Victor make it look like Eric was embezzling from Felipe." Pam hissed again, locking onto Bruce's gaze. Practically instantly, his mental signature shifted as she captured his mind. "Don't wipe him or anything yet, Pam. I need to question him, see what he remembers." She huffed but let him go.

Bruce shook his head slightly, as if he was trying to clear it. I looked to Eric, who nodded at me slightly, before I moved around him to sit closer to Bruce. I took one of the accountant's hands, and started talking to him in a gentle tone, using my own brand of hypnosis. I felt him quickly relax as I spoke to him using my most soothing voice.

It took a long time, but using a combination of my telepathic abilities and Pam and Eric's glamour, we were able to find out exactly what Bruce had been forced to do. Once we'd gotten the account numbers and how to access them, Eric dragged the slightly dazed accountant to his study, leaving me alone with Pam. I stared at the diminutive blonde for a few minutes before finally speaking. "Are we alright, Pam."

She took her time responding. "If it weren't for Eric, I would probably kill you." As always, she was pretty emotionless. "Vamps first, and all. I might not. I _do_ like you, as much as it pains me to admit it. It complicates everything. Eric is really going to owe me for this. You're lucky having you around keeps him in a good humor, or I'd be feeling much less generous." I grinned at her. I liked Pam's dark honesty. It was always refreshing. "You haven't read me, then?"

I was nearly shocked to hear a note of uncertainty in Pam's voice. "Nope," I quickly responded, keeping my tone light. "You've always been like a blank wall to me."

She nodded, very slightly. "That is good. I thought, perhaps…" She hesitated before continuing. "We haven't spoken much, since you were tortured and have been seeing Eric more regularly. I thought perhaps you heard something that offended you."

Jesus Christ on the cross, Pam was hurt. I tried really hard not to laugh. I went for straightforward, since I knew she would appreciate that. "Look, Pam, even if you were mentally running through a list of fangbangers to bring to Eric as soon as I left, I wouldn't be mad at you. I'd be pissed as hell, at Eric, but that's another story. You're a vampire, and you love it. I get that. Unless you were plotting my death, I don't think I'd get mad at you."

She nodded slightly. "I do think about your death, about what it will do to Eric. I do not like the thought of him suffering." She needlessly smoothed her pink pencil skirt. "The last time he loved a human, she died. There was an accident during the day, and by the time he found her body it was too late to turn her. This was before he made me, but from what I've heard he wasn't fit to be around for nearly a century."

I sighed. "Well, that's between Eric and me. We're talking about it, if that eases your mind at all. I'm sorry we haven't been talking that much lately. I just feel bad calling you at work to gab for a bit, and just normally call Eric's cell." I grinned at her. "We'll have to have a girl's night out."

Pam looked thoughtful. Something in her relaxed when I said Eric and I were talking about the whole me dying thing, but she didn't bring it up. "Yes. The waitresses talk about this, and I have seen groups of women doing this at Fangtasia. We will have a girl's night out. When are you free?"

"Uh," I stalled, trying to think. "Well, I'm working lunch Thursday followed by dinner Friday, so my Thursday night is open."

She nodded. "If we get this mess cleared up before then, that should work. Eric owes me a night off for tonight. We will gossip about our love lives. Now that you're done screwing weres and irritating assholes, we may actually have something interesting to discuss. I will pick you up at nine. We can do each other's make up, or some other inane human bonding ritual."

I just smiled at her. "That sounds great, Pam." Thankfully, Eric and Bruce walked back into the living room. "Hey, guys. Any good news?"

Eric nodded. "We were able to trace the accounts back to Bruno. Bruce is going to gather the evidence we need, and I will send it to Felipe tomorrow night."

Pam's lips pressed together slightly. "You can't implicate Victor directly?"

Eric actually growled a bit. "No, but Felipe is smart enough to know who was behind it. If nothing else, it will force him to keep a closer eye on Victor, and he should be more willing to trust me. Victor will, of course, blame Bruno. Since finding Bruno would be against Victor's interests, he will probably let that matter drop." Eric settled next to me on the couch again, then looked to Pam. "Take Bruce home. I want him to forget Sookie was even here tonight, but be subtle about it. He needs to be focused tomorrow."

Pam just nodded, before grabbing one of Bruce's arms and towing him out. Eric spent several long minutes just holding me and stroking my hair before he spoke again. "Will you call in sick tomorrow? I want you here when I rise."

Normally, I wouldn't have wanted to put Sam in a position of being down a waitress, or scrambling to find a replacement on short notice, but I just nodded against his chest. The emotions I was feeling through the bond where chaotic and swirling, but two things were coming through loud and clear. Eric loved me and he was terrified of losing me. I shifted, brushed a soft kiss across his lips, and pulled him towards the bedroom.

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**A/N:** So, I don't think Eric would kill Sookie if he found out about her talent shifting to vamps occasionally. I also think he would tell Pam, since he tells her everything and if necessary could compel her obedience. I think Pam really likes Sookie, especially when Sookie isn't completely fucking with Eric's head, and that Pam will do pretty much everything to make sure Eric is happy. I also think that Pam enjoys having a human friend in Sookie, and I could see her being mad that Sookie never talks to her anymore. They have awesome banter, and Pam always took the time to talk to Sookie whenever she called to talk to Eric. Also, the idea of them on a girls night out is too fun to pass up. What do you guys think of the Pam/Sookie friendship? Feel free to drop me a review to let me know ;)!


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** I just wanted to thank everyone who is reading this story, putting it on alert/favorite and reviewing. Chapter 8 pushed me over 100 reviews, and I'm seriously so happy. You guys are awesome and make all the effort that goes into these chapters worth it. This next bit is for all of you. Enjoy! I'm not kidding when I say the only things in this chapter are ESN and Eric/Sookie conversation. I hope it makes up for my shocking lateness in getting this posted.

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Eric followed me without question, which almost worried me. I'd seen him fall apart when everything had gone down with Alexi and Appius, but this was a bit different. I knew we were by no means out of the woods with the whole Victor situation, and Eric was worried as hell. He needed to stop worrying and get his a-game back, and I had a pretty good idea of how we could accomplish that. We walked into his bedroom and I dropped his hand long enough to pull my shirt over my head and drop it to the floor. I looked over my shoulder, said, "Are you coming?" and walked into the bathroom.

Of course he followed, but he waited long enough for me to have undressed and gotten under the running water. I'd just wet down my hair when I felt his cool arms wrap around my waist. His voice in my ear was low and sensual. "Trying to distract me, lover?"

I nodded. "Is it working?"

"Oh, yes." His hands traced their way over my stomach, and I successfully resisted the urge to swat them away, just enjoying the sensation and ignoring my self-consciousness as his fingers snaked their way to my hips. "You know, this was something you could have told me about when you summarized the time I stayed with you. I would have very much liked you to have told me about this, in detail."

I laughed, leaning back slightly so my back was against his body. I twisted my neck to kiss his shoulder. "I bet you would have. You are completely shameless."

He kissed my hair, and I could feel him smiling. "Says the woman who is using sex to get me out of a black mood. Talk about shameless." I slapped his arm playfully. "I love being in the shower with you. Remind me why we haven't done this since I was cursed?"

I snuggled into him, enjoying the warmth of the water as it washed over us. "Well, let's see. There was the nine months when you couldn't remember this. Then there was that whole take over thing. Then I wasn't having so much fun with sex, so it wasn't so appealing to me. We've had a busy year."

He chuckled softly. "Yes, lover, it has been busy. I sometimes wonder if the curse wasn't the best thing that happened to me in a century or two." I made an inquiring noise. "It put us on more equal footing, I suppose. I certainly wanted you before then, but I don't know that I would love you as I do if I hadn't been in your care. That was why it was so infuriating to not remember our time together. There was a," he paused, "tenderness whenever I thought of you and I couldn't understand it. I would never have allowed you to take care of me if I was completely myself. I can be very stubborn."

I shook my head slightly and rolled my eyes, even though they were closed. "Really? Had you not mentioned it, I never would have known. You come off as so tractable."

"You spend too much time with Pam. That was extremely sarcastic." He started gently shampooing my hair. I leaned back, enjoying the scalp massage. "I mean it though. You are always saving me. When I was cursed, Rhodes, the Alexi situation, now with Victor." He turned me to rinse my hair, supporting my back as he dipped me into the water. "I also don't think you would like me nearly as much if you hadn't taken care of me during the curse. You probably would have taken much more convincing to sleep with me." He traced a line of kisses down my collarbone. "Or you would have slept with me just to sleep with me. Would you have agreed to be mine if I hadn't regained my memories?" He ran fingers and conditioner through my hair.

I sighed, nudging him to lean back so I could shampoo him. My fingers traced absent patterns over his scalp as I worked the shampoo through his hair. "You know how I feel about the 'mine' thing. But maybe. There was the whole Quinn situation. I don't date two men at once."

He dipped to rinse his hair, then pulled me close to him, so we were both under the running water. "Well, you are mine, now, even if you don't like the term. My lover, my wife. Of course," he grinned, "I'm yours. It works both ways, even if vampires don't always admit that."

I picked up the soap, running it over his chest and arms. He raised each arm so I could do his underarms and he could put in conditioner, then rotated so I could wash his back. "So, you're mine, huh?" I smiled. "I'm happy having you as my boyfriend." I could feel him frown, even if I couldn't see it. He hated being called a boy. "I don't know about the husband part, yet. I love you, I do, and I accept that in your world we're married." That made him happy. "In my world, well, we're dating. If we want to get married, it'll be down the road, and you sure as hell better ask me first. No more sneak weddings, alright?" He turned back around and nodded, and I trailed the soap down to a part of his anatomy I'd been sorely neglecting.

He was very obviously pleased, and I took a few moments to run my soapy hand up and down his length, gently shifting his foreskin and cleaning him. He sighed happily, bucking his hips into my hand. "The memory was good, but this is even better." He took the soap from me and ran it over my chest, going over each breast in turn, gently teasing each nipple and making me gasp. I leaned into his large hands with a deep exhale, wanting to get the teasing over with and just take him. My eagerness made him laugh. "Patience, lover. We'll get there. Let's get nice and clean before we get dirty again."

He covered one of his hands in soap and snaked it between my legs, slowly spreading me open, his fingers tracing over me, making me moan and shift my hips, trying to get him to give me more, of his fingers, of him, of what I wanted. His laugh was low and throaty, his hips rocking towards me before he pulled both of us under the stream of water, letting the warm liquid flow over our bodies, soap trailing down us in rippling streams.

Eric swayed into me, pulling me into his kiss, his lips pressing against mine until I opened my mouth and let his tongue run into my mouth, mine following into his as he tried to pull away from me. He groaned as I ran my tongue over his extended fangs, then gently pushed me away. "Lover, I thought we were going about this slowly."

I groaned, leaning my head back to rinse out the conditioner. "You're the one who wanted to take this slowly. I would be happy to have my brains fucked out."

Suddenly, I was pressed against the wall, with Eric hitching one of my thighs over his hip. "Lover, I can certainly fuck your brains out. I just intend to keep doing it until I am forced under by the sun, or you are forced under by exhaustion. I would like the sun to arrive first."

That made me shiver in anticipation, and I rocked my hips forward again, feeling the tip of his erection resting against my opening. Even with the water from the shower, I knew I was ready for him. "Eric, please, just a little," I gasped.

He pressed into me until his tip was inside of me, and we both groaned. "I don't think that's possible, Sookie." He shifted and I stretched to accommodate him, cursing and groaning. "Gods, Sookie, you are so tight. I could lose myself in you forever."

I smiled against his shoulder, trying to think of something to say that wasn't unintelligible or swearing. It took several slow strokes of his hips for me to even remember what words were. "Let's, ugh, get out of the shower."

Eric had me on my back on the bath mat an instant later, still inside of me. "I think I can manage that." He groaned into my neck. "Drying off will have to wait."

His arm angled my hips and he moved even deeper into me, making me scream. "Oh, Christ, Eric I'm going to come." He didn't say anything, just buried his face in my neck as I started clenching around him. I felt his lips moving against my skin, but I couldn't hear what he was saying and didn't particularly care, just enjoying the waves of sensations crashing over me.

Once we both stilled and had recovered slightly, I started laughing at the state of us. We were both dripping water, and I was laying on a soaking wet bath mat. The shower was still running. Eric smiled and stood, offering me a hand up. Once I was on my feet, he reached into the shower and switched it off, and I grabbed each of us a towel and started drying myself. Once I wasn't dripping, I followed him to the bedroom. We both settled on the bed, and Eric pulled a brush out of his night stand. I took it from him and maneuvered him so I could run it through his tangled hair.

He sighed happily, leaning back into me slightly. "You really are a wonderful distraction, lover. Pass me the brush, I will do your hair."

I frowned slightly. It still made me think of Bill, having my hair brushed by a man, but Eric seemed determined to do it, so I passed the brush over once his hair was free from tangles. From giving my hair a quick run through with my fingers, I knew it was pretty badly knotted, but Eric took his time. He started by working out the worst knots with his fingers, then started gently using the brush. It was surprising how tender he could be, how sweet. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the sensation as he started braiding my hair.

After a couple minutes, he snagged an elastic off my wrist and tied the braid off, his hands shifting to rub my shoulders with exactly the right amount of pressure. I groaned, and he leaned in to whisper in my ear. "This is good?" I nodded slightly, and he shifted me onto my stomach so he had access to my entire back. I heard the door on the night stand, then his hands rubbing together quickly.

When his hands returned to my back, they were much warmer, and oily. "How did you warm them up?" I asked lazily.

He laughed softly, his fingers pressing into knots in my shoulders. "Friction, lover. Physics doesn't require me to be room temperature." I wondered if he'd known any of the famous scientists from the ages, like Galileo or Newton or Einstein, and I asked. "I met Einstein once. The man was a shocking womanizer. And that comes from me, to give it some perspective." I laughed, then groaned as he worked a particularly tight knot. "You hold so much tension in your shoulders, my love. I think you forget it's Atlas who holds the world there, not you."

The oil he was using was fragrant, smelling of roses, but not overpowering. Slowly, his hands moved down my back, taking each knot in time and gradually reducing me into a puddle of jelly. When he started kneading my butt cheeks, I jumped, but he shushed me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "You trust me?" I nodded into the blankets, feeling the cheeks he wasn't currently touching go hot. "I love making you blush, lover. Your whole body goes rosy. If you feel uncomfortable, or don't like something I'm doing, tell me. I want to learn everything your body enjoys."

I nodded again, slowly relaxing as he massaged my ass. I hadn't actually known it was possible to hold tension there, but he worked out a couple of knots before spreading my cheeks and running his oily fingers over that very sensitive hole. Involuntarily, my hips started to buck, and one of his hands went to my waist, gently pinning me down. His fingers continued their exploration, and I moaned softly as one finger pressed down on my asshole, slowly sinking into me. His voice was low and throaty as he started speaking to me and slowly moving his finger tip in and out of me. "You are incredibly sexy, Sookie. I love exploring you, feeling the way you react to my touch."

I didn't really understand how I could feel such a slight protrusion into me so intensely, but I just decided to enjoy it, the shivering pleasure that radiated from that sport outwards across my entire body. Eric's finger went deeper inside of me, making me gasp. I tried to focus on the words coming out of his mouth, but it was difficult to focus on anything but my own pleasure. The coolness and renewed scent of roses as he added more oil tome made me focus on his words. "I'm going to put a second finger in your ass. Is this alright?" I nodded frantically, gasping as he slowly started stretching me to accept his fingers. I forced myself to focus on the steady cadence of his voice to keep myself from flying apart. "I can feel you clenching down, my love. Relax for me." His free hand stroked the small of my back, giving me something to focus on other than the sensations that were threatening to overwhelm me. "Good girl. I want to make you come by playing with your ass. Later I'm going to fuck your sopping wet pussy, but for now, just the feel of your tight ass is making me so hard."

The pace of Eric's fingers slowly increased and I cried out, rocking my hips into him. I was close, and the motion of my hips pushed his fingers deeper inside of me, pushing me over the edge. My orgasm exploded inside of me, and I screamed with the intensity of it, pushing against his hand and feeling wetness gush down my thighs. My whole body shuddered and I collapsed back down onto the bed, pulling in gasping breaths. His hands went away for a little while, then came back to gently stroke the small of my back, giving me a few moments to come back to myself.

He rolled me onto my back and grinned at me. I propped myself up onto one elbow and couldn't help but grin back at him. "Wow. Eric, seriously." I flopped back into the pillows. "That was pretty freaking awesome."

He leaned close to me, slowly trailing kisses down my throat. "I'm glad you enjoyed that. Would you be interested in a bit more exploration later?" I arched an eyebrow at him. "Well, seeing how well you responded the last time I played with your ass, I did a bit of online shopping. I got a couple toys for us to play with."

I laughed, but I nodded. "I guess I'll just be glad you did the online shopping yourself and didn't just send poor Martin to a sex shop."

Eric laughed with me, his hands moving to cup my hips. They weren't oily, so I assumed he'd at least wiped them down with some baby wipes while I was still in post orgasm oblivion. "It was far too much fun to let my day man pick things out." I felt the tips of his fangs as he pulled one of my nipples into his mouth, making me gasp. "Shall we play for a little while?"

I sat up slightly and nodded, wanting to see what he'd bought. The first thing to come out of the night stand surprised me, though I didn't honestly know what to expect. It hadn't been a small silver vibrator, about the length of half of one of Eric's fingers. It became evident pretty quickly that the purpose of this was not insertion.

Eric turned the little thing on, making me jump as he ran it up my thigh and over the mound between my legs before dipping down to brush across my clit, making me jump slightly, then press into his hand as the vibrations became very enjoyable. His laugh was low and throaty. "Let's see how many times we can make you come before you beg me to stop."

I thought about objecting for all of a second, before two of his fingers slid inside of me, the little vibrator cupped against my clit in his palm. Instead of replying I just bucked my hips into his hand and groaned. In what felt like seconds, I was clenching around his fingers and moaning uncontrollably. He didn't give me any time to recover, just kept rocking his fingers into my g-spot and the small vibrator into my clit. My second orgasm was even stronger, and a third followed close on its heels, making my hips buck uncontrollably. Eric kissed me as my third orgasm washed over me and I bit down on his lip, tasting the metallic tang of his blood.

As soon as I bit down, Eric abandoned his fingers and thrust his cock into me. Almost as soon as he was in me, I was clamping down again, screaming out his name. I pulled him along with me, and he came, roaring before biting into my breast. We both collapsed for several beats before he rolled off of me. He laughed slightly, folding his arms behind his head. "You really are terrible for my self control. You are just so wonderfully fuckable." I scooted closer to him, snuggling under his arm, yawning into my fist. Eric turned on his side, tapping the tip of my nose. "It seems you are going to fade before the night does."

"What time is it?" I asked him.

"About twenty minutes until dawn."

I pushed him onto his back and straddled him, rocking my hips into his growing erection. "I think I can manage to make it." He laughed, and let me have my way with him.

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**A/N:** So the next chapter is almost done so I'll get it to you guys tomorrow. It has a lot of plot, then I think the next chapter will be the girls night, and I'm really looking forward to writing that. I'll try not let real life get too much in the way. Oh, in case I offended my American readers with the foreskin remark, well, only about 2% of Scandinavian men are circumcised in _this_ century, let alone a thousand years ago. Don't judge.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** So, back to the plot with this one. Hope things are moving at a decent pace. If you like it (or hate it) drop me a note. I love hearing from you guys!

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I was still tired when I woke up in the dark with my alarm beeping, Eric's arms wrapped possessively around me. I would probably never stop being amused by the fact that he liked to snuggle. One of his legs was hitched over my hip, and his fingers twitched on my waist as I shifted. My phone was on the nightstand on my side of the bed, but it took a bit of shuffling to get enough away from Eric to reach it. As soon as I could, I shut off the noise and settled back. Eric pulled me closer to him, not quite completely under for the day. My fingers traced through his blond hair, across his forehead. Before I could fall back asleep, I called Sam's cell.

I was slightly surprised when he picked up pretty quickly, seeing as he normally didn't get up until just before he had to open. He didn't sound as if I'd woken him, so I didn't feel bad. "Hey, Sook, what's up?"

I sighed softly, looking at Eric. I wasn't going to lie to Sam and say I was sick, even if he gave me shit for it. "Hey Sam. I'm sorry to do this to you, but I can't make my shift tonight. Do you need me to call around to find cover?"

He thought for a second. "No, we should be alright. Holly was bugging me for extra hours, since they're trying to save up for the wedding. Everything okay with you?"

Eric opened his eyes slightly and frowned. I guess he didn't like hearing Sam's voice. "Just have some Eric related stuff to deal with. Nothing too crazy, just fallout from various things."

Sam sighed, but he didn't seem mad."Do I want to know?"

That made me laugh a little. "It's more relationship stuff than anything else, Sam." My fingers continued running through Eric's hair, teasing out a couple of tangles. "Eric's stressed. Anyway, thanks Sam. If it gets crazy and you need me later on, call me and I'll come back to Bon Temps."

"Sure thing, Sook. I'll see you tomorrow." We both hung up and Eric shifted next to me, pulling me close to him again.

His voice was soft when whispered into my ear. "So I have you for the day, then?"

"Yes, Eric you've got me. Pretty tightly too. Let go for a sec, I need to go to the bathroom." He complied very reluctantly and I took care of my needs before crawling back in with him. After a second his arms were around me again.

"Hmmm. This really is best, lover. Back to sleep now." His lips pressed lightly into my neck and he snuggled even closer. I relaxed into him and went back to sleep.

I woke up to Eric shifting against me, and from how awake he seemed, it must have been close to sunset. I opened my eyes and smiled at him. "Hey you. What time is it?"

"Six thirty. You slept all day, lover."

I laughed. "Yeah, well, I was pretty tired after last night. We didn't get to bed until after dawn." I sat up slightly and stretched. "God, I'm starving. I'm going to go get coffee and something to eat. Do you want a blood?"

He settled back and sighed. "I suppose I can't just keep you in my bed forever. I don't want you wasting away. Fine, bring me a blood. Come back soon, please."

The sun was still up, but sinking when I got into the rest of the house, and I quickly made a pot of coffee and ate a bowl of cereal and two bananas. Once the coffee was done, I poured myself a cup and heated up Eric's blood before bringing both back to the bedroom. He was sitting up, flicking through messages on his blackberry.

He sipped the blood I passed him without looking up. "Bruce has put together everything I need to send to Felipe. He wasn't able to directly implicate Victor, but Bruno and Laura, another of his lieutenants, were involved. This is a slightly tricky situation." I nodded for him to explain. "Well, Victor is my direct superior. I should, technically, bring this information to him before showing it to Felipe."

I raised my eyebrows. "I hope you're not going to do that, though."

"No, I'm not. I'm going to CC him the email to Felipe, and that's going to piss off Victor. We're going to need to be even more wary."

I leaned back into my pillows and sipped my coffee slowly. "Can you challenge Victor over this?"

"I don't particularly want to. I am hoping Felipe will pull him out of Louisiana and that whoever replaces him is someone I can work with. He might try to settle the score with me later, but I can deal with him if he attacks me."

His eyes flicked to me, and I could feel that he was worried. "What's wrong? You have to tell me, I'm not a mind reader," I joked.

That made him smile. "I worry that he could go after you when you're not with me, or hire someone to go after you in the day time." Eric's fingers moved quickly over the keys. "I'm telling Felipe that you noticed Bruce had been glamoured. That is something you can do, yes?"

I nodded. "He'd have to be asked a question that would trigger whatever was blocked by the glamour, but yeah, I can see that." Eric nodded and wrote out a few more sentences. "I guess you'll have to tell Pam to change whatever she did to Bruce, to fit that story."

"Good point. I'll speak to her at dark." He hit send. "Someone will probably call me from Las Vegas in a couple of hours. It's not yet evening in Nevada."

I nodded. "So, how do you want to kill some time?" I grinned at him, and he plucked my coffee cup from my hand, putting it and his bottle of blood on his night stand.

He flipped me on my back and smiled, showing me his fangs. "I've got a few ideas."

He certainly did. His phone interrupted us at idea number four. He growled slightly, but we disentangled ourselves and he picked it up. "Pam, you have terrible timing." I couldn't hear her response but it made Eric laugh. "Watch it. I need you to change Bruce's memories." He quickly explained what she had to do. "Take care of that as soon as possible. I'm going to bring Sookie to the club with me. I will see you shortly."

I sighed and hugged him. "So, back to the real world, then?"

He ran his fingers through my hair, smoothing a few stray pieces out of my face. "Unfortunately. We really need a vacation. Somewhere where the days are shorter."

I laughed. "Well, I'm not a huge fan of the cold, so good luck convincing me about that. Come on, let's go get showered." This shower was less entertaining than the one we'd shared the night before, but it was still nice. We were both feeling playful and laughing. This was probably the part of my relationship with Eric that I loved the most. He might be a thousand year old vampire, but he'd never really grown up. It would probably come to irritate me at times, but for now it was exactly what we both needed: low stress, carefree fun.

We both finished our drinks as we dressed. One difference that always struck me between the two vampires I'd been with was that Eric didn't always feel the need to drink from me. When he did, he took a few sips and stopped. Bill had always fed from me to the point where I was borderline anemic, and had fed off of others as well, though no one I knew. Eric seemed, maybe not happy, but resigned to synthetic when I wasn't on offer. I mentioned that as he pulled on his jeans.

"Well, I'm old enough that I really don't need much to keep me going. Synthetic doesn't taste particularly good, but I'd rather drink that than make you ill. It is not really a sacrifice, especially since I get to have you." I nodded slightly, hooking my bra. I had enough distance now that I could see the things that were wrong with my relationship with Bill. I doubted he'd loved me at all when we'd been together. It seemed like he hadn't really loved me until I'd saved him from his maker, at which point I was completely done with him. I sighed. Eric glanced at me as he buttoned his jeans. "What's wrong?"

I shrugged. "I just feel like an idiot for ever thinking Bill loved me when we were together. It seems pretty obvious in hindsight."

Eric shrugged. "I think Compton is an idiot, but that really isn't the point, I suppose. Everyone has relationships that were mistakes, or that we feel foolish for staying in for as long as we did. It's all a learning experience. Yes, you were a bit naive, but that's not a crime. You're used to trusting people because you can hear their minds. I'm still impressed you managed to salvage any kind of friendship with Compton."

That made me feel better, somehow. "He's doing much better, you know."

Eric nodded. "Yes, he told me you looked up his sibling. That was very kind of you. Again, not particularly wise, but kind."

I shrugged. "I guess I'd rather be kind. I was pretty careful. I mean, I figured if there was bad blood there, she either wouldn't come or she'd kill Bill, not me. He wasn't going to live too much longer the way he was going."

Eric laughed. "I think we vampires need to stop underestimating you. It really is a mistake, and I'm normally so good at not repeating mistakes. Come on, we need to get going."

I rinsed my mug on our way through the kitchen and left it drying next to the sink, then we headed to Fangtasia to face whatever was going to happen tonight. Pam was waiting in Eric's office when we came in the back. She nodded to both of us. "Any news from Felipe?"

Eric shook his head. "I expect they're up and starting to see to business. We'll hear something within the hour. Did you see Bruce?" Pam nodded. "Good. Who is here tonight."

Pam pursed her lips. "Benoit and Annette are coming in soon. Thalia, Marcus, Ryan, Giselle, Rhiannon, Paul, Bernadette, Gary and Sara. You're expecting Mark and Bianca to come in?

Eric nodded and opened his mouth to speak when his phone rang. He answered the call and smiled. "Ah, yes, hello Mary. Everything is well in Las Vegas, I trust? I'm glad to hear that. Yes, well, I found it to be very troubling news as well. I copied Victor in on the email I sent to you, but we haven't had a chance to discuss it yet. I know, it's very troubling to see he doesn't have his people under control. Obviously, I will abide by whatever decision Felipe makes in this matter. No, I don't think I need to take personal retribution, since everything was uncovered. I'm sure Victor and Felipe will choose an appropriate punishment for his lieutenants. I suppose this explains Bruno's disappearance. Of course, Mary." He hit end on his phone.

Pam was grinning, but not in a particularly reassuring way, since the tips of her fangs were poking out. She, of course, had gotten to hear both sides of that conversation. She bounced slightly on her toes. "So, Victor is being called to Las Vegas. What do you think Felipe is going to do?"

Eric shrugged slightly. "I don't know. I'm sure we'll know soon enough. For now, the only option we have is waiting." He sat down behind his desk and looked at me. "I have some work to take care of, but I shall be free in a few hours if you can wait."

I took a moment to feel him out through the bond. He seemed pretty relaxed. Whoever he'd talked to in Vegas had really set his mind at ease. I had to work the lunch shift tomorrow and I should really go back to my life, as much as I might have wanted to stay with him. "I really should get back to Bon Temps, Eric." His lips were tight but he nodded slightly. "I've got work tomorrow, and I'm out of clean clothes. Pam, we still on for Thursday?"

Eric arched an eyebrow, and Pam's smile turned a bit more friendly. "Yes, I shall pick you up at nine, and we will go out. It will be very fun."

Eric looked bemused. "You two have a date?"

I gave him a half hearted glare. "Girls night, Eric. You know, no boys allowed, painting the town red, that kind of thing."

That made him laugh. "Sounds more like Pam's idea of a good time than yours." He turned to Pam. "So you're not going to be here Thursday night, then?" She nodded. "Very well. Bring Sookie to my house so she can get her car. Lover, hopefully I will see you soon. I'll call you if we hear anything from Felipe, or if anything changes." He came around the desk and pulled me into his arms, before planting a toe-curling kiss on me. I relaxed into him, wondering if really, when it came down to it, I needed clean clothes or a job or anything but this. Pam cleared her throat, bringing us both back to the real world. Eric rested his forehead against mine and laughed softly, gently pulling one strand of hair that framed my face. "I'll miss you," he whispered.

I hugged him, brushing my lips over his one last time. Half an hour later, I was in my car heading back home. The drive took me an hour, and my house felt strangely empty when I got there. I unpacked my new texts and notebooks in the living room, before heading into the kitchen. There were messages on the machine, so I listened to them. Tara had a couple dresses she wanted me to come look at, and Andy needed to talk to me about testifying at a hearing for Arlene. That came as a bit of a shock, and I told myself that I'd deal with it tomorrow. For now, I was going to write it off as a Scarlett O'Hara moment.

I didn't like how much I missed Eric. We'd spent a couple days together, and it felt like there was this empty space where he should be. What was I going to do when he decided he didn't want to be such a presence in my life, when he grew bored of me? It was bound to happen eventually. I didn't have any illusions that I'd be able to hold his interest for ever. Bill had been bored with me before he'd run off to Mississippi and Lorena. If I hadn't been his assignment, he probably would have been done with me long before then.

Before I could stop myself, I'd whipped out my phone and dialed Eric. He picked up after the second ring. "Is everything well?"

I smiled in spite of myself. "Just letting you know I got home safe, I guess. You alright?"

He didn't reply for a few seconds. "I wish you were going to be in my bed when I returned home."

That made me laugh. "Is that all you can think about, hun?"

"What does that mean, that word. Hun. Like the empire?" Was he talking about Attila? Maybe they'd been friends. I asked him. "No, wrong century. Before my time."

"Well, hun is short for honey. You know, the term of endearment. You get lover, I get honey."

There was silence again. "I liked honey, when I was human. I miss having you in my bed. For sex, but also for just having you there. I miss you."

At least I wasn't alone in that crazy sentiment. "The feeling's mutual." I sighed. "It feels weird to miss you so much. I saw you two hours ago."

That made him chuckle. "That feeling is mutual as well. Part of this is the bond, in case you were curious, but most of it is simply love." How had he known I was thinking about that? The bond still made me uncomfortable and I worried about it. When I was with Eric, it was easy to put it to one side, but at times like this, I hated the damn thing. "You miss those you love when they are not near."

"I just we'll just have to get used to it."

"Or you could move in with me."

I froze. Part of me wanted to jump up and down and just say yes. The other part, rational Sookie, knew that we'd only been dating a few months and it was far too early to even dream of taking that kind of step. Rational Sookie won out. "Yeah right, Eric. Scale it back a notch."

I could tell he was frowning just by the tone of his voice. "You are my wife. We should live together. What is the point of drawing this out? We want to be together. Why deny ourselves happiness?"

Damn him and his rationality. "We've been together for like ten minutes. I've got my life here, and work. I don't even keep clothes at your place. Isn't that the rule? When fifty percent of your closet is their stuff, you have the moving in talk?"

He laughed, softly. "I suppose you need to start leaving things here then, or I'm going to have to resort to buying you clothes."

I smiled, a little bit sadly. I hated keeping this distance, trying to stay safe, but I knew one day he was just not going to feel the way he did now. It was going to crush me, and the only way I was going to come out of this with some part of me left whole was if I didn't at least try to hold myself back. "I don't think that counts, Eric. Anyway, I'm sure it would annoy you, having me under foot all the time. You'd have to keep fresh food in the house. I'm okay missing meals for a day or two, but cereal and fruit gets boring pretty quickly."

"You didn't eat enough while you were at my house?" He sounded puzzled.

Talking about food reminded me I was starving, so I wandered over to the fridge. I poked around for a minute before deciding to heat up some left over pasta and sauce. "Uh, not really." I popped the Tupperware into the microwave. "Nothing to cook with. That's another thing you'd have to deal with if I lived with you, cooking."

"I'm very adaptable." I could hear his smile. "Fine, we'll discuss it in time. I must admit, I am a bit worried about your schedule when you begin classes. Between school and work, are you ever planning on seeing me?"

I sighed, pulling my now hot food from the microwave. "Well, I'll be in Shreveport four days a week, so I'm sure I'll wait for you to get up one or two nights a week." I gave the pasta a stir, and poured myself a glass of water, then sat down at the table. "Hey, I'm going to eat and then hit the sack. I love you."

"You as well." Sometimes I hated cell phones, since you didn't really get a click or dial tone to let you know the other person had hung up. Once I realized that, yet again, Eric hadn't seen the need to say good bye, I turned my attention to my food, before I was too exhausted to eat it.

* * *

**A/N:** So the next chapter is girls night, then I'm thinking about skipping ahead a couple weeks so that I can actually get to Sookie starting school. What do you think? Yes, I know, everyone wants to see Sookie living with Eric. Hold your horses kiddies! They've only been dating since January (4 and a bit months) and Sookie really doesn't have a great track record when it comes to men. Eventually, well, we'll see when they get there. Hope you liked! Let me know!


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Hope you like the girl's night! It's a bit longer than my normal chapters, and it isn't perfect, but I hope you like it. Pam can be a real challenge, and I hope she came across as at least semi-believable! Let me know what you think. Also, a link to Sookie's dress will be in my profile, in case you can't visualize it properly.

* * *

Wednesday went by pretty fast. I woke up earlier than I expected, the sun on my face pushing me out of my dreams. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning, then had a huge brunch of French toast, coffee and sausage before heading out to do a grocery run. I went by Tara's Togs on the way home, and we had a catch up and I got the cute dress she'd been holding in my size. It was a deep red with wide black straps, an attached black belt that cinched in my waist, a sweet heart neck line and a silhouette that made me look like a pin up from the '40's. We also talked baby showers, and I made a list of items she wasn't asking for at her other shower and a possible guest list. When I got home, I called Andy and he explained that he needed me to sit down with the state prosecutor to go over things before Arlene had a hearing next week. By the time I finished that, I had just enough time to get ready to head in for an uneventful dinner shift.

Thursday, the lunch shift was busy, which made it fly by. My tips were especially good, which made me happy since I was pretty sure I was going to be spending more than I normally did with Pam. I handed off my tables to Holly with a grin, waved to Kennedy behind the bar and headed out to my car.

Since I'd gotten off work at five, I had plenty of time before Pam came to pick me up. I showered and washed my hair, then let it air dry so it would be a bit curly. I made myself a big dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and salad, since I was pretty sure Pam intended this evening to include alcohol for me. Our chat when she'd driven me back to Eric's on Tuesday had included mentioning her intentions to 'live vicariously through' me.

Once I'd had enough to eat, I cleaned up, then started my getting pretty routine. I moisturized, ran my curling iron over a few sections of my hair, and picked out some cute underwear to go with my new red dress. Even if I wasn't going to see Eric, I always felt more self confident when I was dressed up from the skin out. I did my makeup, keeping it pretty minimal. I didn't know where Pam wanted to go on our 'girls night' so I figured mostly neutral would work anyway. She didn't seem like the kind of girl who would want to spend the night clubbing. My one indulgence was red lipstick; I figured I wasn't going to be kissing anyone, so I didn't have to worry about messing it up.

I slithered into my new dress and dug out some black heels and a going out purse, transferring the essentials over. I used a few bobby pins to keep my hair out of my face, wished I wasn't going out with a vamp so I could wear silver jewelry, sprayed myself with perfume and headed to the living room to wait for Pam.

She arrived at five minutes past nine, knocking briskly on the door. She, as always looked wonderfully polished, wearing an amazing navy pencil skirt, with a tuxedo shirt and a killer pair of heels. She looked me up and down, then indicated I should give her a twirl. I complied with a grin. Her smile was mostly fang, and I'd been among vampires long enough to take this as a compliment. She laughed, a short burst, and arched an eyebrow. "I am so glad we need to stop at Fangtasia before we go out." I gave her a quizzical look. "Eric is going to be very entertaining."

I shrugged my shoulders and dismissed that line of thinking with a wave of my hand. I looked good and I knew it, vampire jealousy could go stand in the rain. "What are we doing tonight, anyway? Will this dress work, or should I change?"

"You look fine. We're going to a new cocktail bar that has opened in Shreveport. We will have girl talk and cocktails. They even have a mixologist who specializes in vampire drinks. Rare blood types and the like. You could use a necklace."

I smiled and picked up my purse. "The only stuff I have that works is silver, and that seemed pretty tacky." She just marched straight to my bedroom. I followed as quickly as I could, to find her poking through my jewelry box. She was using a hair stick to move things around, so she didn't touch the silver.

Suddenly she reached in and picked something small up. "Why do you have two bullets in here?" She sniffed the one she was holding. "This smells faintly of Eric." She picked up the other one and sniffed it as well. "So does this one, but it's more recent. Still old though, maybe nine months." She was frowning slightly as she thought. "Oh that's rich. You kept the bullets he took for you?"

I knew I was blushing. "Well, I didn't want to just throw them out."

She just snorted, then went back to looking through my jewelry. A few seconds later she pulled out a cheap necklace and tossed it at me. It was pretty in a costume kind of way, and it certainly wasn't real anything, even though it was silver toned. "That will do. You should get some platinum. It looks nicer than silver anyway."

I'm pretty sure my eyebrows were trying to make friends with my hairline. "Uh, I'll get right on that, Pam." I took a second to pop on the necklace, then she practically dragged me out to her car, barely giving me time to lock up the house.

Pretty much as soon as she started driving, we started chit chatting. It surprised me to find that Pam seemed genuinely interested. I told her about planning Tara's baby shower, and how I was going to have to talk to a prosecutor about Arlene's trial. Her only comment about that was that she'd known Arlene was worthless from the first time I'd mentioned her. It was hard to agree, since I'd liked Arlene once, and her kids, but I couldn't say she'd been wrong.

Once I'd told her about the classes I was going to be taking, I steered the conversation towards her. "So Pam, what's been going on with you? I feel like I have no idea what you've been doing the past couple months."

"I've had a lot of responsibility at the club, since Eric has been spending more time away from work." She didn't say with me, but I knew what she meant. "It's been enjoyable. I like the added responsibility, and I still have enough time off so that I can enjoy myself. I've been seeing a girl from Shreveport, not a fangbanger, but I am thinking about ending it."

"I'm sorry to hear that!" I really was. If anyone deserved to be happy, to find someone to love, it was Pam. She never really let anyone see her vulnerable side. "What's going wrong?"

To my great surprise, Pam actually opened up to me. "Everything was going well at first, but I believe something about our relationship is starting to bother her. She hasn't told any of her family about me, partly because they do not know she dates women, but also because of what I am. It makes her tense, keeping this secret. She loves her family, but fears how they would react, that they would reject her. It makes her tense, and I do not know how to help."

"Well, that can be a tough situation. If she hasn't told them she dates women, she's not going to go for the double whammy, if you know what I mean." I'd been around enough people who weren't out to their families to know how they tended to think about it. The fear of rejection could be crippling. "She needs to come to that decision on her own. All you can do is be supportive of her choices. Are you having any other problems?"

Pam pursed her lips in thought. "I think she wishes I wasn't a vampire, that we could do things together during the daytime. She works in HR, for a large company in Shreveport, so she has to be up early during the week. I have met some of her friends, that know about her preferences, and they do not seem to mind me."

It must really suck (no pun intended) sometimes for vamps to be out of the closet. If they wanted to date someone, not just resort to glamour or fangbangers, it must be hard to actually find someone who accepted them as they were. Maybe that was part of what Eric loved about me. He couldn't glamour me, and he knew I loved him for who he was. I didn't worship him because he was a vampire, but I didn't hate that part of him either. It must be hard to find someone who was willing to love all of you. "Hey, Pam, you know what could be fun? A double date. You, me, Eric and this girl of yours. What's her name?"

"Melissa. I suppose a double date could be interesting. Even Dear Abby says that they can be an appropriate was to introduce a significant other to couples you are friends with. I will ask Eric and see what he thinks." I didn't bother to tell her that it was probably my place to ask him, since we were pulling into the parking lot at Fangtasia, and if asking him herself made Pam happy, she was welcome to the task.

Pam made short order of whisking me into Eric's office. He was at his desk, going through paperwork, and I leaned against the door frame to watch him. He had to know I was there, since we could feel each other through the bond. Because of the bond, I knew he was sulking, which amused the heck out of me. He didn't look up as he spoke. "Did you bring those papers, Pam?"

Pam whipped some folded papers out of her clutch and tossed them on Eric's desk. He finally glanced up at us, and I smiled at him. "Hey honey. You having a good evening?"

He'd moved around his desk, pulled me all the way into the office, pushed Pam out and shut the door, all too fast for me to clearly see. He had me pushed against the door before I could even squeak. "That is not fair, lover."

I grinned at him. "What's not fair, Eric?"

"This dress. You're going out tonight, in this dress, without me, and other men will be staring at you. I may have to instruct Pam to kill anyone who so much as glances at you. Slowly." He kissed my neck, making me gasp. "Painfully." His lips moved slowly up my neck, tracing their way along my jaw line, before his teeth nipped my ear lobe and he pulled away from me. "You are sure I can't convince you to forget your plans and stay with me?"

I smacked his chest playfully. "I'm going out with Pam, and don't even think about inviting yourself along."

He made a face at me, making me laugh. "Is the dress new? I haven't seen it before." His fingers traced their way up my hips and over my waist.

I pushed his hands away and stuck my tongue out at him. "I bought it yesterday. Figured it could use an airing."

"You look delicious." He cupped my cheek with one hand. "Are you certain I can't convince you to just spend the rest of your night in my bed?"

I leaned in and brushed a kiss across his lips, careful of my lipstick. "Positive. I'm off on Sunday if you want to do something."

He nodded. "I'll plan something. I want to take you out, show you off a bit. Maybe see you in this dress again."

I laughed, then pushed him away so I could open the door and get by. Pam was tapping her toe and glancing at her watch. As soon as I was out of Eric's office, she was pulling me out the back entrance, her hand clamped around my wrist. Eric said something to her in another language, and she laughed, then replied. As fast as my legs could move we were back in her car, then on our way.

The bar Pam took me to was very modern, with low lighting and small tables. The hostess seated us quickly, giving me a menu for humans and Pam one with cocktails designed for the undead. We both took a couple minutes to look at the menus and tell each other what looked interesting. I wanted a lychee and lemongrass fizz, which was basically a much fancier gin fizz, and Pam was thinking about a dusty moonrise, which blended AB negative, apparently the rarest blood type, with 'a touch of something exotic', which Pam told me was code for fairy.

Our waitress came by, telling us about the specials, and then taking our orders. She returned quickly, and Pam and I each took a moment to savor the first sip of our cocktails. Mine really was delicious, even if I didn't think it was humanly possible for a cocktail to cost over ten bucks. I certainly wouldn't be having more than two, if only for the sake of my wallet. Of course, as soon as I made that joke, Pam informed me that since she'd picked the place, she was picking up the tab. I just thanked her and went back to enjoying my drink. "So," I said, once those first couple sips were happily warming my stomach. "What did Eric say to you when we were leaving."

Pam grinned at me. "Just that I shouldn't let anyone hit on you. I told him that was all part of the fun." Her fangs were out as she sipped her drink. "This really is good. So much better than synthetic, and the added touch of the fairy really brightens the whole mix. Your drink is enjoyable?"

I nodded. "It's really fresh, but with a really nice kick of spice." I took another sip, relaxing back into my chair.

"So," Pam asked suddenly, "You must be in a much better mood since you're getting laid regularly." I nearly choked on my drink. Why I hadn't been expecting the conversation to go this way, I don't know, but I hadn't been. I stared at her for a few seconds before she continued. "I would ask you if the sex is good, but I've slept with him, and I'm certain it is. I know Eric is in a better mood. He says you've finally admitted you're married."

I decided to just ignore the whole 'we've had sex with the same guy' part of the conversation, praying she didn't decide we needed to compare notes or something. I went with the only safe part of her whole little speech. "I know that we're married in the whole vampire sense. We're not married in the eyes of the state of Louisiana, and that means we're not married in my world. That's not going to change for a while."

Pam stared at me for a second. "You do realize how insulting that it, don't you? Our form of marriage isn't good enough for you?"

I took a big sip of my drink. "It's not that, Pam. It's just, for me, a wedding means our friends and family coming together to witness a mutual decision to commit to each other. It's not me handing Eric a knife in front of Victor in the back room of a bar. That's not exactly every little girl's dream wedding."

"Deal with it. If you want some fairy tale wedding, do it, but stop denying that you're married. It hurts him."

I sighed and finished my drink. I really would have preferred to discuss our favorite positions with Eric. "Pam, we've talked about it. I get what you're saying, and I'm not denying the whole marriage thing anymore, but you have to see it from my side as well." The waitress came by again, and this time I ordered a juniper breeze, which was gin with elderflower, whatever that was, and citrus juice.

Pam ordered another fairy spiked drink, and I knew by the look she gave me that she wasn't done talking about it. "I just do not understand why you're not willing to recognize the commitment he has made to you."

"Pam, I really don't want to get into this. I thought this was supposed to be a fun, carefree girls night." Thankfully our new drinks arrived, so I took a gulp of mine.

Pam took a slow sip of her new drink. "I've watched those women on Sex and the City. This is a perfectly allowable topic for girl talk."

I sighed. I wasn't drunk, but I was starting to feel my first drink, and as much as Pam probably wasn't someone I should discuss this with, I didn't have anyone else. "Pam, do you honestly see Eric being in this for the long term?" I buried my face in my glass, avoiding whatever look she was giving me. "I mean, how long am I possibly going to hold his attention before he gets bored? Six months? Bill only lasted five. I can't compete with somebody he's known for centuries, I don't expect to. I'm just being happy in this moment, enjoy what we have for now."

When I finally did look up at Pam, she as frowning slightly, her lips pressed together and her eyes slightly narrowed. "I understand you very well, Sookie Stackhouse." Just like that, the subject was closed. "I think you would get along well with Melissa. She is a lot of fun to spend time with. She might even get you to consider broadening your horizons."

I laughed, and our conversation got a lot more comfortable. We talked about why Pam was thinking of ending things, how basically she wanted to get out of there before she got hurt. I told Pam some embarrassing stories from my childhood, most of which centered around something I'd heard in people's thoughts, so she made me read people in the bar at random. Twice, pairs of guys approached our table, but Pam dismissed them with a wave of her hand and a flash of fang before they could even get a word out.

For my third drink, the waitress recommended something called a hibiscus swizzle, and it was amazing. It was gin with some kind of berry and hibiscus syrup and it freaking knocked my socks off. I decided to stick to those for the rest of the night. After that drink, I was feeling decidedly silly. I'm not sure if drink four or five pushed me over the line to drunk, but I was there. Pam was so rosy she looked almost alive, with all the blood she'd had moving through her veins. Her eyes were slightly dilated, and apparently she couldn't be bothered to retract her fangs all the way.

The bar had a small dance floor, which I dragged Pam onto. She humored me, and I really enjoyed myself. I loved to dance, and Pam was a great woman to dance with. She really knew how to move. Once I had enough, and Pam seemed to be getting bored of staring down men trying to approach either her or me, we retreated to our table to have another drink.

It was about two in the morning, and I was certainly at the point of being giggly drunk. "Hey, Pam! I've got a great idea." She arched an eyebrow at me. "You should call Melissa, and I'll call Eric, and we can talk to them!"

Pam gave me a half smile. "I will send Melissa a text. She has some big," Pam waved a hand vaguely, "thing at work tomorrow and she is most likely asleep. Feel free to call Eric, however. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you."

I didn't waste any time whipping out my cell phone. The tiny sober corner of my brain was asking me if I really wanted to drunk dial Eric, and the rest of me answered with a resounding yes. He picked up on the second ring. "Hey honey! What are you doing?" I dissolved into helpless giggles.

Eric was silent for a few seconds, then he started laughing. "Sookie, are you drunk?"

"I'm heading that way." I giggled again. "You should totally come have a drink with us! Pam, aren't the drinks great?"

Pam nodded. "Oh yes. In fact, Eric, I was thinking about talking to whoever designs the mixed drinks for vampires. We could do something like this once a month at the club. I think it would be a hit, and keep the staff happy."

"Pass the phone to Pam, Sookie." I did as I was told, and Pam switched to some language I couldn't understand. I stuck my tongue out at her, and polished off my drink while I waited. Once she hung up, I made a face. "It's not nice to talk in a language I can't understand."

She shrugged. "It's also not nice to invite your husband on a girl's night."

She had me there. "Shit, sorry, I forgot. At least now you can make Eric drive me home."

She snorted. "Of course. Since you'll certainly be ending up back in Bon Temps tonight."

"I have work tomorrow! I already blew Sam off once this week to spend the day with Eric." The way Pam looked at me, I knew she misinterpreted the way I meant 'blew off'. "Ew, gross, not like that. I ditched work to stay with Eric. Are you really mad he's coming?"

She shrugged. "I assumed he would find a way to drop by at some point. He loves the style of dress you're wearing. He loved the '40's. The rise of hemlines, the reappearance of a curvy silhouette. He hated the stick thin fashions of the '20's." It was funny to think of how long Pam had known Eric. She was older than Bill, and had spent nearly a century at Eric's side.

I had no idea how many times she'd worked with him since she'd set off on her own. All I knew was that she'd been in Minnesota before Eric had asked for her help with Fangtasia after the great revelation. "You must know him so well."

"I do," she nodded. "That is why I know he loves you. He has always been an excellent maker to me. He told me you are less obstinate about being turned."

I could feel myself blanche slightly. I got why he would have told Pam this. Apparently she was the only vamp, besides himself, that he would even consider as a potential maker for me, and I suppose he wanted her to know in case she was around if I got killed. "That's a ways off. All I said was that if I got hurt to the point of being dying, I wouldn't be mad if I got turned. I'm not ready to give up the daylight just yet, but I don't see the point in dying if I don't have to."

She sniffed. "Well don't leave it too long. I'm happy to know you're at least past the point of leaving him devastated by your death. It is inevitable, seeing how frequently you manage to damage yourself. It is certainly a weight off his mind."

Thankfully Eric arrived then, closing that particular conversational door. I hopped up and hugged him, kissing him a bit too enthusiastically for public, but I was the wrong side of sober to care too much. He sank into my chair, pulling me down to sit on his lap. Pam waved the waitress over, getting each of us a drink.

I leaned against Eric's chest, taking a few seconds to just enjoy being near him, the warm hum of the bond, they way he smelled, the softness of his tee-shirt. His arms wrapped around my waist, and he took a second to bury his face in my neck, inhaling. Pam apparently had enough of our display and clapped her hands together. "Enough. As much as I hate to break up your sickeningly sweet reunion- Oh wait, that's right, I don't. You," she pointed at me, "up." She stood, and I reluctantly hopped off Eric's lap while she fetched another chair. "Sit there. Isn't this honeymoon period supposed to end eventually?" I sat down, but Eric moved my chair closer to his, so he could wrap an arm around my shoulders.

Eric was in an excellent mood. "Calm down, Pam. Have the two of you been having a good time?" The waitress dropped off our new round of drinks. I sipped mine happily, deciding that it really was the last one of the night for me. Anymore and I was going to move past happily drunk into sloppy. My shields were already fading in and out as my concentration slipped. Thankfully no one was focusing on our little group. It was so much nicer to be somewhere other than Fangtasia, where Eric was pretty much always the center of attention. Eric pursed his lips thoughtfully after his first sip. "This is quite good. What is it called?"

"It's a dusty moonrise. AB neg and fae. That was the first thing I had. Would you like to try mine?" Pam offered her glass of blood to Eric.

He took the glass and took a sip, then frowned. "O positive and fae? That really is a little tacky, Pam." She grinned at me, showing her fangs. "And it really isn't quite the same." I can't believe they had a mixed drink that was basically me. Wonderful.

I managed a weak laugh. "Well, at least it's something if I ever get anemic. What's it called?"

Pam gave me a very seductive grin. "A 'Screaming O'. Perhaps we can try and replicate the experience some time."

I snorted. "Not with a line like that, Pam."

That made Eric laugh, and he returned to sipping his martini glass of blood. "This really is an excellent business model. I wonder where they get their supplies." I just snuggled into his side, while they talked about the pros and cons of offering non-synthetic blood. Apparently this place had some cocktails that were all or part synthetic, but Pam hadn't tried those. They even called over the mixologist, which as far as I could tell was just a fancy term for bartender, who was human. I read from him that his parents were shifters, as was his older sister, and that was how he knew about some other aspects of the supernatural world.

He'd run a bar like this in New Orleans until Katrina, when he'd moved up here. Since a lot of vamps had moved north as well, he was trying it out again, to see if it was profitable. He talked to Eric and Pam for a while, talking suppliers and overhead. When I yawned, Eric thanked him for his time, handing him a business card. He signaled the waitress and handed her a card so he could take care of the bill. He even apologized to Pam for crashing girl's night, but he didn't seem too sincere.

Once he had his card back, he rose and offered me a hand. I took it and stood, and the three of us made our way outside. Pam and Eric had parked in opposite directions, so we stopped to say good bye. I gave Pam a hug, and said that we should really do this again sometime. I was surprised by how much fun it had been. Pam hugged me back and smiled, then turned to Eric. "Oh, before I forget, Sookie had a wonderful idea. She would like to go on a double date, with me and the human I've been seeing, Melissa."

Eric frowned, obviously not thrilled with the idea. They exchanged a long glance, which seemed to house a whole conversation, and finally Eric shrugged. "Arrange it, then. Good night Pam." She was gone in the next instant and Eric turned to me. "You, little drunk girl, are going to pay for that."

I laughed, and turned to run, but I only got two steps before his arms were wrapped around me. He threw me over his shoulder, giving me a wonderful of my favorite part of Eric Northman, before smacking me playfully on my own butt. I erupted in helpless giggles as he carried me off to his car.

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**A/N:** In case you're curious, the human cocktails are from a bar called the Flatiron Lounge (which is no where near the flat iron building, go figure) in New York City. They really do have amazing (and expensive, at least from my point of view[$12-18, if I recall correctly]) cocktails, so if you're in New York, check it out. I used to go there when I knew the hostess, which kept it from too heavily denting my very modestly padded student wallet. For a cocktail bar in NYC, they're fairly normally priced, but to me that seems expensive, mainly because I always tried to drink for free whenever possible.

I had a lot of fun thinking up the vampire cocktail names, even if I forced myself to reject the more puntastic ones. Any ideas for others? Also, sorry about Eric worming his way into girls night. It's always amusing when the group of boyfriends manage to do that, suddenly appearing and looking slightly sheepish.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** So, in a different approach for me, this chapter is from Eric's POV. I just couldn't write drunk Sookie well, so I figured it would be fun to take Eric out for a spin. Let me know what you think of him, and if it doesn't seem completely ridiculous! Also, first lemons from a male POV, so let me know if it worked.

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Sookie was decidedly drunk when I deposited her in the passenger seat of my corvette. As soon as I was in the driver's seat, she started chatting. "Hey Eric, you aren't mad about the whole double date thing, are you? It'll be fun." I glanced over at her, distracted momentarily by the rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed. She poked me after a second. "Keep your eyes on the road or my face, buddy. I'm pretty sure my boobs didn't ask you a question."

I hated it when she called me buddy, but she wasn't actually angry, so I let it pass without comment. I looked back to the road I was speeding down, just enjoying the warmth that radiated off of her, the way her scent filled my car. "I will do it to humor you and Pam, but for the record, I think double dates are a waste of time." It had been such a thing in the '50's and '60's, something you had to do , and inevitably at least one person in the group would be completely vapid and irritating. I also didn't normally bother meeting the humans Pam dated. They rarely lasted long enough for the effort to be worthwhile, though this one was hanging in much longer than normal.

Sookie shrugged, which drew my attention back to her breasts. The dress she was wearing hugged her curves in all the right places, and all I'd wanted to do since I'd seen her in it earlier was peel the thing off of her. It amazed me that she could tease me so with such minimal effort. I pressed the accelerator down slightly further, wanting to get her home and into my bed as soon as possible. "So," I asked, trying to think of something other than pulling over and fucking her senseless, "You had fun with Pam?"

Sookie started telling me about her evening, and I listened with half my mind. I was glad that Pam liked her, because if I had anything to say about it, Sookie was going to be around for a very long time. I wanted my children to get along. I wondered when Sookie would change her mind about being turned, or if I was going to need to eventually take matters into my own hands. At least she had finally given in to the idea of being turned if she were mortally wounded. That had been something. Of course, I probably would have done it anyway. I wasn't going to let something like death take her from me if I could prevent it.

It was easier now, to be a little patient. She was mine, in nearly every way. She was my wife. _Wife_. I had never thought to marry, or to have it mean so much. Those nine months without the memories of being in her house while cursed had been difficult, to say the least. I'd had more of her blood, and she more of mine, but that didn't explain the way I felt about her, or the way she felt every time I saw her. I hated the spike of pain that would arc through her when ever she'd looked at me. I hated not understanding my reaction every time I saw her. Certainly, before that, I'd wanted to sleep with her and maybe even pursue a relationship, but suddenly when I looked at her, there was an aching longing to just be, with her.

Remembering had it explained it; I'd fallen in love with her. It didn't make it any easier. She was so difficult, always trying to be independent and self sufficient. Never really letting herself just be with me. I could feel her, through the bond, holding something back, always. Tonight, though, it was different. Her feelings were loose, relaxed, and for once she let herself feel everything. It was amazing. The warmth of her love bathed me, reminding me of the almost forgotten feeling of summer sunlight infusing my skin with heat.

It confused me, sometimes, how much she hated the bond. She was used to dealing with humans, who were completely transparent to her. She could trust people because she could read their thoughts. With me, she didn't have that, at least not with any regularity. That was something we were going to have to discuss when we had time. It was irritating how many things we needed to discuss, if only time would allow it. I supposed we still hadn't properly discussed our bond, or her inexplicable hatred of it. The bond allowed her to trust my feelings for her, yet it seemed to make her doubt me even more. I supposed I would just have to wait out her misgivings. At least we should have the time for it.

Finally we arrived home, and I helped her out of the car. She leaned into me, pressing her body into mine, grinding her hips into my thighs. Feeling her, so warm, so alive, practically humming with desire for me, was an incredible turn on, and my erection was swiftly pressing into her stomach. She giggled when she felt it, taking her lower lip between her teeth and looking up at me through her lashes. "Let's go inside, baby."

I loved this aspect of her, this innocent seduction. I'd been seduced more times than I could remember, but this perfect blend happened rarely, and those were always moments I could vividly recall. Helena had been like that, and I suppose Sookie reminded me a bit of her, though they looked nothing alike. Helena had been short and pale, her dark brown hair falling in waves to her waist, her green eyes sparkling when she smiled at me in the mood light. I'd loved her, and I would have turned her if I'd had the chance. Seeing her laid out in death, half of her face crushed by the landslide that had killed her, had broken something in me, and it had taken centuries to be able to recall her without being blinded by anger.

Sookie's giggle as she pulled me into the house called me back to the moment. We paused in the kitchen to kick off our shoes, Sookie stumbling in her heels. I steadied her, then she swayed her way into the living room. I wondered if she'd noticed the things I'd added to the kitchen for her. It had been a simple matter to get my new day man to buy a few cooking implements and stock the pantry with things that would keep, as well as some items that wouldn't spoil too quickly for the fridge. I suppose the fact that she rarely ate in front of me had made me forget she would want to cook.

She stopped in the living room, which surprised me slightly, and made her way straight to my music collection. I had cds, but most of my music was on records. I'd amassed quite the collection over the past century, though only my favorites were in the living room. I watched her fingers trace over the spines as she read the titles, her hips swaying to whatever music was currently playing in her head. She pulled out a record and put it on the turn table, taking a few moments to figure out how to get it to actually play. She was old enough that she'd probably listened to records when she was a young girl, but only just. It was shocking, sometimes, how young she was.

When I heard Bob Marley singing about how he wanted to love and treat her right, every day and every night, I had to laugh. That was all I wanted from her, for her to let me love her and care for her. Is this love, indeed. If it wasn't, I didn't know what was. She smiled at me when she turned, holding out her hands and walking towards me, asking me to dance with her. How could I refuse?

We swayed together to the music, my hand in the small of her back, keeping her close to me. I rested my chin on her hair, inhaling slowly to catch her scent. I loved that my home smelled of her, that she was slowly soaking into the very walls. I loved the warmth of her when I rose for the night and she was in my bed. I would miss that when she was turned, but not enough to keep her human.

I wrapped an arm around her waist and dipped her, thinking of the other times we'd danced together. We'd danced when she'd come to ask for a bartender when the shifter had been injured, and in Rhodes, and a few times in her house when I was cursed, just like this but with fewer clothes. She felt so good in my arms, and the laugh that bubbled out of her as I shifted to right her was infectious. Once she was upright again, she threw her arms around my neck, standing on her toes to kiss me.

The kiss started as something fairly innocent, but then she pressed her hips into mine, bringing my erection back to life, and opened her mouth, letting me slip my tongue into her mouth, tasting her sweetness. I could taste what she'd been drinking, some sweet thing I couldn't recognize, but under that, the taste of elderflower. That was a taste, and scent, I knew well, going back to my days as a human. It reminded me of spring, and swimming in a lake whose shores were surrounded with elder trees, their white flowers swaying in the gentle breeze. I'd carried a small piece of elder wood in my belt pouch to ward off witches and evil. That hadn't stopped Appius, of course.

Sookie's tongue swept over one of my fangs, making me growl into her mouth. She was such torture. I thought of one of the first things I'd said to her, how I'd called her sweet. Her response, 'Not especially," had been so unexpected, I was stuck silent for a moment. It had been the first time she'd made me laugh. She was sweet, but there was spiciness mixed in. She appeared simple, but there was complexity under the surface.

She broke off the kiss, grinning and panting slightly, her chest rising and falling impressively in her dress. She pushed me towards the couch, and I collapsed onto it once the backs of my legs hit it. She shimmied onto my lap, frowning at her dress, which wouldn't let her straddle me. After a second's thought, her face lit up in a smile and she pulled the dress up around her hips and settled herself over my erection. I groaned as she pressed into me, feeling the heat that pulsed through her very tiny red thong. My fingers dug into the softness of her ass, pressing her even closer.

It took all of my self control, as well as thinking about state tax code, to not just rip the underwear off of her and take her. The little noises she was making were not helping. I gripped her hips and held her still, and she made a small noise in protest, pulling away from my lips and pouting. "You are not good for my self control." I tapped her nose gently.

"Screw self control." She giggled and tried to press her hips into me again. "In fact, screw me." She bit her lower lip again, and my very tenuous grip on control evaporated. In the next instant, I had her underwear off and had turned her around so her stomach pressed into the back of the couch. Two of my fingers plunged into her, her wetness soaking them. I couldn't wait any longer, and was out of my jeans and sliding into her as quickly as I could be. She screamed as I thrust into her, her walls clamping down around my cock, almost hard enough to push me out. She was so fucking tight. I had to wrestle my baser instincts into submission, or I would just fuck her and drain her, do everything I could to have every part of her. I wanted her so badly it hurt. Fuck she was tight.

I gave her a few seconds of slow stroking to adjust to having me inside her. The noises she was making were driving me insane, along with the wetness that dripped out of her, coating my cock and dripping onto her thighs. Once she was ready, I started moving faster, pushing all of me into her over and over again, making her scream. I was lucky she started coming quickly, because I simply couldn't last long with her acting like this. I felt like I was going to orgasm with each scream my cock pulled out of her throat. As soon as I felt her walls clench around me, I was gone. I fisted a hand into her hair, plunged my fangs into her shoulder and came deep inside of her. The wash of her blood over my tongue was amazing, the taste of her making it so difficult to just take a small sip. So much better than a cocktail. It really didn't even compare.

She shuddered as I pulled out, moaning slightly. "Fuck Eric, that was amazing." She didn't swear very often, but hearing words like that come out of those sweet little lips made my cock twitch. It was hard to quantize exactly what made sex with her so amazing. It was a sum of little things, all adding up to the best sex of my existence. Loving her made it all even better.

I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, kissing her as we went. I tossed her onto my bed and she laughed. I took a second to just look at her, her hair tousled, her dress pushed up to her waist and her lipstick smudged. She was a mess, but fuck she looked beautiful. I got hard again just looking at her. Her eyes got wide and she grinned, looking at my renewed erection. She beckoned me forward, pushed me down on the bed.

When her lips wrapped around my cock, I hissed. The wet warmth of her felt so good. Feeling my head hit the back of her throat, the way she gagged slightly made my balls tighten. Possibly because she was drunk, she took me deeper than she normally could, her tiny fingers wrapping around the base, coaxing me towards the edge. Suddenly she pulled away and smiled at me, her light blue eyes sparkling. "I can taste me on you." _Fuck_. She pushed my cock deep into her mouth, and that thought, those _words_, my cock pressing into the back of her throat finished me off. My hips jerked as my fluids spurted into her mouth and she swallowed everything I gave her. She was so fucking perfect.

She looked intensely pleased with herself when she sat up, grinning. I couldn't help but smile back, then I pulled her close to me and kissed her, my hands finding the zipper of her dress and pulling it off of her. I broke the kiss to strip her, enjoying the sight of her in nothing but a red lacy bra before I took that off as well. I stripped off my shirt, then pushed her back onto the pillows. My fingers ran over her curves, feeling the softness of her skin, enjoying the stark contrast between the white skin on her breasts and the mound between her legs and the tan she sported everywhere else.

I teased her nipples with my fingers, enjoying the way she gasped and struggled under me, the way she tried to move her hips, encouraging me to touch her. I spent a few minutes teasing her, until she was bucking wildly underneath me and begging me to touch her. I complied, continuing to tease her with light brushes of my fingers across her clit, but the feel of how wet she was soon over powered my desire to tease her.

I spread her knees apart, giving myself a view of her dripping wetness as her labia opened before me. My fingers spread her even further, and I couldn't help but stare at this vision in front of me. I loved exploring her body, learning how she liked to be touched, loved that she trusted me enough to explore her desires with her. When she looked at me, a slight hint of nervousness shining through her haze of want, I smiled at her, then put my fingers to work.

I put two inside of her, curling them as I thrust to hit her just right, and used my thumb to brush slowly across her clit. Her eyes slid shut as I touched her and she lost herself in just feeling the sensations I was causing. I loved watching her as I played with her, watching all the feeling play out across her face. It didn't take long to feel her begin to clench around my fingers, for her moans to rise to a fevered yelping. "Look at me," I ordered and her eyes snapped open, locking with mine. At that moment, my thumb moved swiftly over her clit and my fingers thrust hard into her spot and she came, gushing wetness over my hand and screaming. The way her face changed as she came undone was so beautiful.

I didn't remove my hand once she came, though I left her clit alone while she recovered. I stroked my fingers slowly in and out of her, and once she again began responding to my motions, I sank my face down to kiss that little nub that gave her so much pleasure. She shivered slightly as I sucked on it, trying to shift away from me, but I was having none of that. I settled in between her legs and started licking, my fingers continuing their work. The taste of her was amazing, that wonderful blend of salt and slight acidity, uniquely feminine, uniquely her. I lost myself for a few minutes in her, licking and sucking her clit as she writhed beneath my tongue and hands. She screamed as she started coming, and I drew her orgasm out, feeling her clenching down repeatedly and she thrust her hips into my face. Wanting to draw her orgasm out even longer, I wet one finger in her slickness and pressed it into her tight asshole, unleashing another wave of moisture over my chin and hand.

That gush was my undoing, and I plunged my fangs into her thigh, letting two swift pulls wash over my tongue as she climaxed again. I licked the wound lazily as she twitched, and shuddered when I pulled my fingers out of her. I left her briefly to wet a washcloth, and had to laugh at the glimpse of myself I caught in the mirror. Her red lipstick was smudged around my lips, and her wetness was all over me. I washed my face and returned to gently clean her up. All of her muscles were loose, and she didn't speak, just groaned from time to time in appreciation. I was filled with pride knowing the state I'd reduced her to.

She was exhausted, and quickly slipping into sleep. I slipped into bed beside her, kissed her hair and pulled her close to me, our legs entwining automatically. Her heart rate and breathing slowed, and I could tell she wouldn't wake soon. With a sigh, I left the bed to tend to a few things around the house. I set up the coffeemaker for her, found her underwear and threw them into the wash. Those could be the first item of her clothing that moved to Shreveport. I assumed it would be easier to convince her to leave things here once she was busy with classes, but we had to start somewhere or I was going to make good on my threat to just buy enough clothing for her to fill half my closet.

I wrote her a note, telling her to take my car and to make herself some food before she had to leave to go to work. I pulled her house keys out of her bag and threaded one of my spare keys onto the ring, along with an extra key for my car and a garage door opener, and left them with the note, next to the coffeemaker.

The record had finished playing some time ago, but the record was still spinning. I stopped it, then slipped the large disk back into its jacket and away. I turned off lights as I went, finally returning to the bedroom. I popped a glass of water onto the night stand on her side of the bed, as well as two pills from a bottle of pain medication she'd left here when she was still injured from being tortured. I tried not to dwell on that memory, and pulled out a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans she could borrow, since she probably didn't want to wear her dress home. It would also put some of my clothing in her closet, which couldn't be a bad thing. The jeans would fit well enough, since she had heels to wear, and the tee-shirt was one that was pretty tight on me, so it wouldn't be too ridiculous for a car ride back to Bon Temps. I'd taken her cell phone from her bag, and I set that on the night table as well, after setting an alarm for noon. That would give her time to shower and eat something, since she had to be at work at five. I settled into bed next to her, my arms holding her close to me, breathing unnecessarily to pull her scent into me, and waited for the sun to pull me under.

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**A/N:** So,how did I do? Was that believable for Eric? What was right, what felt off. Let me know, and if you'd like to see any more from him.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update! My laptop charger died, so I was without my computer which was very sad. I'm back now, so hopefully I'll get back to updating fairly regularly. On another note, I'm so pleased with the response to the last chapter. The flood of reviews pushed me over 200! Etivnan was review number 200, but he/she reviewed anonymously, so I'm thanking you here! I would like to give you a present for your review, in the form of a chapter request. It can be a specific pov from a scene I've already written, or just some scene you'd like to see. Hopefully you'll see this and respond, if not I'm open for requests from everyone else. Let me know if you guys want more Eric pov's and I might just oblige! We're back in Sookie POV now, and I hope no one is too confused.

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I woke up slowly, trying to remember exactly where I was. The dead guy with his arms wrapped tightly around me and one of his legs between mine was a pretty big clue. I managed to slip far enough away to turn on the bedside lamp, regretting it pretty instantly. Eric stirred slightly at my groan, and I heard him whisper, "Water, pills." I opened my eyes long enough to spot a glass of water and some of my pain meds sitting on the bedside table. I took them quickly and shut off the light, taking some time to drink the water. I should have done that before I'd gone to bed.

Once I'd turned the light off, I realized I wasn't quite as hung over as I'd first though. I had a slight headache, and the light had made it a lot worse. Since Eric was glowing, I could see just well enough to make out my cell phone sitting on the table, and I grabbed it to check the time and set an alarm. I was surprised to see it was only eight thirty, and that my alarm had already been set for noon. No wonder I felt like crap. It was far too early for me to be up after the night I'd had.

I finished the water and set down the glass, then got pulled back into Eric's arms. He murmured, "Love you," then went back to being dead and I soon settled back to sleep.

When I woke to my alarm, I felt a heck of a lot better. My headache had gone, and I was still tangled up in Eric. Last night was slightly hazy, but I remembered everything. I knew exactly why I felt sore and well used. I had been.

I flipped on the light, pleased that my head didn't pound this time. I shifted away from Eric, who was very much out for the day, and stood, stretching my sore muscles. I'd had a really good time last night, drinking with Pam, then coming home with Eric. Of course, I had no clue how I was going to get home, but I'd figure something out.

I showered pretty quickly, then found some clothing that Eric must have laid out for me. It wasn't too bad, a faded Neil Young tee-shirt that wasn't ridiculously huge on me and a pair of jeans that were slightly snug across my hips, baggy at the waist and too long. I folded them up a couple times so I didn't trip walking around the house.

The smell of coffee pulled me to the kitchen, and I was surprised to see that the pot was full and hot. Eric must have set it up on an alarm for me, since I certainly hadn't done it. I poured myself a mug, picked up the note he'd left by the machine and opened the fridge, hoping the milk I'd bought hadn't been thrown out.

I was shocked when I opened the fridge, and found a bunch of food I hadn't purchased. There were eggs, cheese, bacon, sandwich fixings, fruit and orange juice tucked in with the True Blood, along with my milk and half and half in the door. I put some half and half in my coffee and read Eric's note.

_Lover,_

_Please take my car today. I put keys on your ring, for the house, the car and the garage. I will pick up my car tonight. I had Martin get some groceries for you, and some things you need for cooking. Please eat. I do not want you falling ill because I neglected your needs. I hope you are feeling well as you read this. I remember mornings after a night of drinking from when I was human, and it is unpleasant. From the way my waitresses talk, nothing about that has changed in the past millennium. You were so lovely tonight. If this is what you are like drunk, feel free to develop a substance abuse problem. I am joking of course, but it was nice to spend time with you when you were feeling so unguarded._

_I love you and I will meet you at work towards the end of your shift, so I may escort you home. I will miss having you in my bed when I rise, and will take care of my business in Shreveport as quickly as I am able._

_Yours,_

_Eric_

I smiled to myself, slightly amazed. It was still a bit shocking when Eric went out of his way to do something nice for me, even if it shouldn't have been. I sighed happily and took a sip of my coffee, thinking about what to have for breakfast.

After finding a frying pan and spatula, I myself a scrambled egg, bacon and cheese sandwich and a glass of orange juice. I thought about making myself a sandwich for later, then felt a bit guilty about stealing Eric's groceries, even if that made no sense. I did grab two peaches, since they were ripe and it didn't wouldn't do to waste them. Looking at Eric's car key on my ring was slightly intimidating. I hadn't even wanted to drive the thing when I'd needed to get Eric to Appius and Alexi. I knew how to drive a stick shift, but I was terrified about messing up his car, which was pretty much his baby.

After thinking for a second, I took my cell phone out and dialed. After a ring, Claude's voice answered. His hello sounded bored and uninterested. "Hey Claude. Is Dermott around? I need a favor."

Now Claude perked up. "Yeah, he's with me. If you could get him out of my hair for the afternoon, that would be great." There was a shuffling noise as Claude passed the phone over, and Dermott came on the line. "Hello niece."

"Hey Uncle Dermott. I've got a favor to ask if you're not too busy. I'm kind of stuck in Shreveport and I need to get back to Bon Temps for my shift at five. Do you think you could come get me?"

It would take him nearly two hours to get here, so it was a huge favor, but he was the only person I could think of who probably didn't have something else he needed to be doing. "Of course, Sookie. I will be happy to see you, and I think Claude would appreciate having some time to himself." I smiled to myself. Claude really wasn't a fan of tact. "Where exactly are you?"

I gave him directions to the gate that enclosed the community and told him to get the guard to call when he arrived, so that I could come out and meet him. I wasn't comfortable telling a fairy, even if he was family, exactly where Eric lived. I then flipped over Eric's note and wrote one of my own.

_Hey honey._

_I didn't want to wreck your car, and I was a bit too intimidated to drive it for the first time without you there to freak out if I did anything too wrong. Dermott's giving me a lift home, but I'd still really like to see you tonight if you have the time to come by. Thank you so much for getting cooking stuff. It really means a lot to me. It was really great to get a hot breakfast, and having coffee waiting for me made it even nicer. I wasn't too hung over, thanks to the pain killers and water you put out. If you can't come out to Bon Temps, call me. I love you._

_Sook_

By the time Dermott arrived, I'd gotten hungry, so I had made myself a sandwich after all. I went out to the gate to meet him, and smiled when I saw him playing with the radio in Claude's car. I figured Claude was using Claudine's, since she'd left it to him. I climbed into the passenger seat with a smile and he leaned over to hug me. After a few seconds, we broke apart and I smiled. "Hey Uncle. You been alright?"

He nodded, pulling onto the street as I buckled my seatbelt. "I've been settling in with Claude. We managed to locate some of my assets and gain access to them, so I am not completely dependent on the charity of others. I've been dancing at Claude's club this week, which has been entertaining. Apparently I'm quite the draw." I laughed and shook my head. Jason was not going to be pleased. "You were with your vampire?"

I nodded. "I went out with his child, Pam, last night, then wound up staying here. He told me to take his car to get home, but I was really not comfortable doing that since I've never driven the thing."

I could see the corners of Dermott's mouth twitch up in a smile. "He must love you, to trust you so much."

I looked at my hands for a second. "He really does, I think. I don't know if it's really possible for someone as old and powerful as he is to love someone like me, but I think he does."

Dermott shrugged slightly, his smile still giving a slight, graceful curl to his lips. "My father loved my mother very much, even though they were very different beings. My brother loved your grandmother. Loving a human is difficult, but sometimes that difficulty is what, in and of itself, makes the relationship worth pursuing."

That made me fall silent. Could my uncle be right? Could Eric love me because of our differences? I spent most of the rest of the ride staring out the window and making polite conversation, but my heart wasn't in it. When we got back to Bon Temps, I invited Dermott in, but was glad when he declined. I really did need to get in to work, and needed to do a quick clean up around the house.

I did get to work on time, but only just. I did manage to get laundry done, as well as vacuuming the main rooms and giving my bathroom a quick clean. Sam was pretty stressed out when I arrived, but I didn't have time to talk to him, since Merlotte's was pretty busy and I had to take over my tables. One thing I noticed pretty quickly was that there were a number of the two natured eating and drinking, and I didn't know any of them.

After about an hour, I had a few minutes to rest and nodded to Sam that I was going out back. Sometimes I almost wished I was a smoker, since that would have given me something to do outside, but I guessed a few minutes of fresh air was justification enough. Almost as soon as I leaned against the wall and started staring into the gathering dusk, Sam was standing next to me. I glanced towards him, then back to the setting sun. "So, Sam, what's with all the new faces?"

He scuffed the toe of his boot in the dirt and crossed his arms across his chest. "Seems like I owe Eric a thank you. He called in a favor with the pack in Monroe. We had another protest yesterday, then their pack master called me, to let me know who's stirring up trouble for me there."

I sighed. "It's Agent Lattesta, isn't it?" Sam nodded slightly. "Sam, this is my fault. Niall fixed it so he can't get to me so he's going after my friends." I thought for a minute about what I was going to do. In a typical month, I made about two grand working for Sam. If I worked for Eric, even at the lower rate, I could make that in less than thirty hours a month. I could quit, save Sam a huge amount of hassle and maybe his livelihood, and still be in a better position financially than I was now. I sighed. "If you need to let me go, I can get by just fine with telepathy work."

Sam shook his head. "I'm not going to let some fed with a grudge run you off. If you get to a point where you yourself need to quit, that's one thing, but I'm not going to fire you. The Monroe pack is seeing what they can sniff out. We'll see what they come up with and go from there, okay cher?"

I nodded and blinked back tears. I really didn't deserve a friend like Sam. "You know, if my class schedule gets to be too much, I'm going to have to either really cut back my hours or quit all together."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. "I know. Let's see how you get on. Holly really wants extra hours, so she'll pick up the slack, and like I told you, I've got a couple high school girls who want summer jobs. I'm not going to hold you back from getting an education. Come on, we should get back inside before it gets too crazy."

The rest of my shift went by pretty quickly. We were busy, but not swamped. Eric came in about four hours after sunset, which caused a spike in inappropriate thoughts in most of the female, and a few male, patrons. He took a seat in my section and I made sure all my tables had everything they needed before I brought him a true blood and sat down with him. "Hey honey," I smiled.

He sipped his blood and smiled slightly at me. "You could have taken my car, you know."

I shrugged. "I know, but if I did something to it I'd never forgive myself. My first car was a stick, and I burnt out the clutch when I was learning. I always was a bit heavy handed, well, footed, with my clutch control."

Eric frowned slightly, obviously imagining the things I could have done to his car. "Hmm. Perhaps it would be better if you drove it with me once or twice. What time are you finished?"

I glanced at my watch. It was about a quarter to twelve. "Depends on the crowd. If it keeps up like this, we'll close around two." He nodded slightly, taking my hand and stroking it slightly. "Hey, Eric, how much telepathy work do you think you could help me get?" He arched an eyebrow at me. "It's just that Sam is having issues because of me and I want to see if it would be feasible to quit. I'm cutting my hours in half when I start classes anyway, but I don't want to have to completely depend on the money Claudine left me if I don't have to."

Eric nodded and thought for a few minutes. "Well, I would like for you to do some passive observing at Fangtasia every week. We got fined for admitting a minor with a fake id last week, and I had a waitress quit because she was being harassed by one of the vampires. If you could catch little problems like those, it would save me a lot of hassle. I've also had requests for your services from several area vampires and from the Sherriff in Area Two. Basically, you can have as much work as you desire."

I sighed and rubbed my temples. "Well, I don't know about going to Baton Rouge, but the local stuff would probably be fine, and I don't mind sitting in Fangtasia a couple nights a week. Would you come with me if I traveled?"

He shrugged. "If I couldn't, you could have Pam or even Bill. Of course, we could arrange it for a time when I was available." He squeezed my hand and then went back to stroking it. "Do you want to stop working for the shifter?"

I glanced at Sam, who smiled slightly at me. His hearing wasn't as good as a vamp's, but it was better than human and he probably knew what we were talking about. "I like working for Sam, but I'm causing him problems and I'm going to be too busy to work much when classes start. I've got twenty hours of class a week, plus a two hour commute every day. Even cutting back to twenty hours of work, that comes to about fifty hours a week. I'm not going to have any time to do my class work and forget about seeing you." I sighed and dropped my head into my free hand. "I just don't know if it's worth it, and I want to do well in my classes. I think I'm going to have to quit."

Eric nodded very slightly. "You don't have to decide right now. Why don't you work for me a couple of nights a week while you're working here, see how going back and forth to Shreveport works for you."

I nodded. "You're probably right." I picked up his hand and kissed his palm softly. "I need to get back to work. Give me a wave if you need anything."

He nodded and gave my cheek a kiss as I rose and I went back to working. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to quit. I could work for Eric a few hours a night and make more than I was now, plus I'd have time to actually do my homework. I could spend the nights I had class in Shreveport, which would save me on gas money. Having poked through the fall prospectus, I knew my schedule was going to be pretty varied, not the uniform blocks of time I was looking at this summer, which would make running back and forth to Bon Temps to waitress even more difficult. I knew Sam would make something work, but it wasn't fair to the other girls if the schedule revolved around when I had class.

Once I'd finished up my closing duties, I pulled Sam into his office. He gave me a half smile, and his thoughts told me he knew what I was going to say. "So," I sighed, "I think I'm going to quit." He nodded slightly and I figured I owed him all my thoughts on the matter. "It's not just Lattesta, though I'd be lying if I said that didn't figure into the decision. I'm getting a chance to go to college, and I want to make the most of it. Even if I stick to twenty hours a week here, I'm not going to have any time to study, and I really want to do well. It's also not fair to everyone else if the schedule hinges on what hours I can and can't work. I can earn enough with telepathy in fewer hours, which will give me time to do my school work, plus it'll be good experience for me to start building a business. I guess," I paused and took a deep breath, " guess I'm giving you my notice."

Sam shook his head slightly and hugged me. "You're going too fine, Sook. When do you want our last day to be?"

"Well with Holly clamoring for hours, you can cut me back a bit, I guess to thirty or twenty five or so. Is two weeks enough time?"

Sam nodded. "I'll be sad to see you go, Sook, but I'm glad you're leaving to get an education, not get dragged down into vampire or shifter shit. You deserve better than that."

I hugged him, hard. "Thanks Sam. I promise I won't be a stranger."

He laughed and hugged me back. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you're moving to the moon or something. I better see you at least once a week. Just because you're quitting doesn't mean we're not going to be friends anymore."

Finally I let go and stepped away from him. "Of course I'll come by still. You don't get rid of me that easily. And any time you need me to read someone, you just ask, you hear?"

Sam nodded and waved me away after another hug, so I grabbed my purse and went to meet Eric in the parking lot.

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**A/N:** Phew! So, Sookie has realized that she might as well work fewer hours for more money so she can support herself and still do her class work. Lots coming up next, hope you're looking forward to it!


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **Hey all, did ya miss me? I was without internet for about ten days, after being without my laptop for a couple weeks. I will try to keep my catastrophes from interfering with your ability to get further installments of this story to read! I promise! Anyway, enjoy, tell me what you think. Lucky reviewer number 200 didn't get back to me on what special chapter/scene (s)he wanted, so if anyone else wants to chime in, it will be my gift to people who review/read in general!

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Eric was smiling a little too smugly when we got back to my house, even after I stuck my tongue at him. It felt weird to think that in two weeks time I wouldn't be working for Sam anymore. We had been through so much together, and he'd put up with so much of my crap. I was never going to have a boss as good as Sam. Sure, he didn't give us health insurance, but hey, he had to eat too. It always amazed me that Eric had his staff on a group plan. I guess Fangtasia is a lot more lucrative than Merlotte's.

When we went inside, I fixed Eric a true blood and a gin and tonic for myself; I figured that after my night I could stand a little celebration. I snuggled into him and sipped my drink. "So," Eric said, "You gave the shifter two weeks' notice?" I nodded. "You start classes in three weeks." I nodded again. "I was thinking perhaps we could go away for the weekend, or even just pretend to go away for the weekend and lock ourselves in my house."

I laughed and punched him softly in the arm. "I thought we agreed on no abducting me."

He pulled me closer to him, taking care not to spill our respective drinks. "No, you said you would need convincing. I am going to be very persuasive." He whisked my drink out of my hand and had me on my back, pressed into the couch, his lips moving slowly against my neck before I could blink. "Just think of all the ways we can enjoy ourselves."

I could feel my heart speed up, and heat between my thighs, but I pushed myself back up. "Hey honey, I'm really feeling a bit off right now. Can you tone down the sex and maybe have a conversation with me?"

He laughed a little, but shifted so his arm was around my shoulders and we were both sitting up. I took back my drink and sipped it for a few seconds in silence. Eric was the first to speak. "I know I am not the most aware of social nuance, but I do believe a conversation requires words, lover. Tell me what is wrong and we will work out a solution."

I sighed and pursed my lips. "I guess it's just weird, to think I won't be working for Sam anymore. I can grasp going to school, and doing more telepathy work, but losing Merlotte's is like losing the one thing that's been a constant in my life for years. I'll be twenty-eight in July. I started working for Sam when I was twenty-two. It might not seem like much to you, but that's a pretty significant chunk of my life." I sighed, thinking back to those early days of working for Sam. My shielding had been so much worse, and he really was understanding about how distracted I could be. "I wasn't very good at keeping out of people's heads back then, and he was real understanding. I worked other jobs before waitressing, but it was always a disaster. Office work was awful for me. Usually one of the guys wanted to sleep with me, and after he had one particularly involved afternoon fantasy, I would quit, or the women were caddy and after some particularly mean thoughts I'd respond to the thoughts instead of what they were saying, and I would quit. Working at Merlotte's was so different. Sam just let me be, let me sort myself out. Plus being around different people all the time made me practice my shields a lot. They still weren't great, but you kind of expect drunk guys to be thinking about your boobs."

Eric ran his fingers through my hair. "You know, you can't really blame men for their fantasies. Or women, for that matter. We all need to escape the banality of our lives from time to time. I've certainly fantasized about bending you over my desk and ravishing you a time or two."

I threw back my head and laughed. "I bet you have. But nineteen-year-old virgin Sookie didn't appreciate seeing the play by play."

Eric's eyebrow shot up. "You were a virgin at nineteen? How is that even possible?"

I found myself laughing again. "Eric, I was a virgin at twenty-five."

I could tell he was counting backwards. "Bill? Bill was your first?" I nodded. Eric shook his head in disbelief. "I knew you'd said he was your first boyfriend, but I suppose I never really thought about it." That had been something we'd discussed while I was cursed. "So you had Bill, then Alcide." I snorted and shook my head. "Really? Well, Bill then me, then Quinn and then me again. Were you a virgin when we met?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I was. Why do you care, anyway?"

"If I'd known he'd never had you, I never would have allowed him to leave with you. Speaking of Bill…"

There was a knock at the back door. I reached out with my mind and felt two voids. I held up two fingers to Eric and he nodded, then I stood to get the door. After looking through the peephole, I opened it and smiled slightly. Bill had an arm around Judith's shoulders, and he was looking so much better than he had been. I hadn't seen or heard from him since he'd left a note on my doorstep, telling me Judith was going to be hanging around for a week or so and that he was healing. Apparently she'd stayed longer than she'd planned. "Hey Bill, Judith. Nice to see you again. Would you both please come in?" They both entered, and I gestured to Eric, who'd stood when I opened the door. "Judith, I don't know if you know my husband, Eric Northman." I had said I was going to recognize our marriage in his world, and by the rush of happiness I got through the bond, I knew I'd done the right thing.

She nodded to him. "Good Evening, Sherriff. We didn't mean to disturb you."

"Can I get either of you a true blood?" They both nodded and I gestured for them to sit. "Eric, do you need another?" He shook his head and I went to get drinks for the two vamps. It was good to see Bill looking like his old self, but I was certainly curious as to why he'd stopped by at almost three in the morning. All three vampires were sitting when I returned. Eric looked serious, but he felt pretty satisfied from what I could tell.

I handed Judith and Bill their drinks with a slight smile. Eric was talking. "So, Bill, how long will you be gone for?"

Bill shrugged very slightly. "I can do my work from anywhere, really, and Judith needs to return to her work. Of course, since I will be maintaining my permanent residence here, I will still be under your jurisdiction."

Eric nodded. "Make sure you check in with the Sherriff in Little Rock. Check in with Pam every week, and I expect that your next update will be going out on time, understood?"

Bill bowed his head slightly. "Of course, Sherriff. May I have a word with your wife before we take our leave?" Eric nodded and rose, dipping to give me a quick kiss on my hair.

Judith and Eric both retreated to the kitchen, and seemed engaged in quiet conversation from the low hum of voices. I stared at Bill in silence for a few seconds. "I'm glad you're looking better, Bill."

He smiled at me. "I'm nearly completely healed, sweetheart, and it's thanks to you. I think I've lost count of the number of times you've saved my existence. All I've ever given you was heartache."

I looked at my hands, which were locked together in my lap. "Bill, it's not like that."

He snorted, which was so odd, so human a noise to come from Bill. I forced myself to look at him. "It is very much like that, Sookie. Don't be so naive. The first night I met you, you saved me from drainers." He chuckled softly. "You have no idea how much that, you, some little human girl, saving me like you did, irritated me. Of course you had to be the telepath Sophie-Ann sent me looking for as well." He pursed his lips together. "I hated being back in my old home, with so many unfinished memories, my life only half lived, I hated being _ordered_ to pursue some girl from this stagnant backwater." I don't think Bill had ever been this honest with me. It surprised me exactly how deeply his words cut. "When those drainers attacked you, I could have stopped it. I needed your trust and the quickest way to do that was to give you my blood."

Now I was starting to feel sick. It was one thing to suspect your first love of letting you be nearly killed and another thing entirely to have that fact confirmed. I drained my gin and tonic in one long gulp. Bill, of course, kept going. "I was slightly late, but I let things continue longer than necessary. I am sorry for that. I hated you for quite a while. I hated that I was obliged to pursue you, then I hated you because I found you interesting."

I sighed, wishing I had another drink. "Did you ever love me?" The words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them.

He laughed slightly. "Of course. I loved you before Lorena called me, even if it wasn't going to last forever. When you killed my maker, that moment, the things I felt for you were indescribable. I would have done anything for you after that."

I needed another drink if I was going to get through this conversation. "Look, Bill, I'm fine to keep talking to you, but I need another drink. Will you excuse me for a second? Can I get you another true blood?" He nodded and passed me his empty bottle.

Eric and Judith were talking when I entered the kitchen, Eric leaning casually against the countertop. I smiled at them both, a bit shakily. "You two doing alright in here?"

Eric smiled back at me. "Of course lover. Do you need a hand with something?"

I shook my head. "I'm just grabbing a drink for me and Bill. Do either of you guys want anything?"

"We're fine, dear one. We may go for a walk."

I smiled as I poured some gin over ice. Eric was trying to give me a bit of privacy for my heart to heart with Bill. What with vampire hearing, they knew exactly what Bill was saying to me. "I'm sure you know your way around. You'll come back before you have to go to Shreveport?"

His fingers traced lightly down my spine as he leaned in to kiss my cheek. "I'll be back, but I will need to be back in Shreveport before dawn." I nodded and took the drinks back to the living room.

Bill took the true blood I offered with a slight smile. "As I was saying, yes, I loved you, even if I didn't love you as deeply as I should have until after you were done with me. Being with Judith the past weeks has reminded me of that. We've spoken of you, at length." I arched my brows in question. "She wanted to know the circumstances of Lorena's death, and it led to other things you've done for me. It made me realize how much I've come to rely on you. You saved me in Rhodes, even after you found out about my orders. It would have been completely understandable had you left me for the sun."

I shrugged. "I didn't want you dead, Bill." Part of me had, but not a big enough part to actively kill him.

Bill reached out as if to touch me, then seemed to think better of it. "You still didn't have to do what you did. Is Eric treating you well?" I blinked at the sudden change in subject. I could only assume the other two vamps had slipped out the back door. Eric would not have appreciated that question. I nodded slightly, not trusting my voice. Bill pursed his lips. "I never trusted him with you, but he's managed to treat you better than I ever have, and he is not someone I would have thought would treat a woman well. He wanted to take you from the moment he met you."

"Bill, I really don't think we need to discuss Eric. I wasn't completely blind, or stupid." I took a big gulp of my gin and tonic. I was starting to feel the warmth of the first one flowing through my veins, and I appreciated the distraction of the alcohol.

Bill nodded slightly. "Of course. I wanted to discuss our past, and the ways I have wronged you. We will stick to that."

I sighed, expansively. "Why do we need to have some kind of blow by blow, Bill? This is all in the past. Was I pissed when I found out you'd been sent to spy on me and seduce me? Of course. We're never going to have the same relationship we had before I learned that. I'm not happy to find out you nearly let the Rats kill me so you could force me to take your blood, but it's not like I never thought of that possibility before."

Bill looked slightly stricken. "I wouldn't have let them kill you." He reached towards me but again, his hand dropped before it reached me. "I need this, Sookie. I just," His hesitation almost hurt. "I just need to feel like we've been honest with each other, that I've been honest with you, before I go."

I had to sit in silence for a bit to absorb Bill's words. A big part of me was worried about whatever he might choose to tell me. Bill Compton had broken my heart a few too many times for my own comfort. We'd just barely gotten back to a place where we could be friends again, and _now_ he wanted to pour over all the reasons I had for hating him? Helpless, I nodded for him to say what he needed to say.

"I was angry when you ended things between us, even though I'd planned on leaving you for my maker. I was angry that things between us were in such a bad place."

I took a shuddering breath. "Look, Bill, if we're going for honesty, we should talk about Jackson. I wanted to find you, save you, but I'd written you off as soon as I found out you'd planned to pension me off. You raping me was a very final, uh, nail in the coffin."

Bill winced at that. I wasn't sure if it was the bad pun or reminding him that he had, in fact, raped me. He'd also nearly drained me, but I guess that was easier to forgive. I tried to never think of Bill in the context of a rapist, or of me as a victim, but that's exactly what he'd done and we both knew it. He hadn't been himself and he'd stopped as soon as he'd come to his senses, but it was still a bit hard to think about. "I'm sorry for that. I know it isn't enough to say those words, but I am sorry. I'd been tortured to the brink of madness, I hadn't eaten for days."

I held up a hand to stop his explanation. "I know, and I don't blame you. It just made any chance of reconciling a heck of a lot slimmer. And then you went to Peru and Eric got cursed." It was my turn to trail off into silence.

Bill's lips were pursed. "If I hadn't seen it myself, I never would have believed he was actually under a curse. It was amusing, after the fact, when he couldn't remember staying with you. I was glad he couldn't remember sleeping with you. Of course, seeing the shifter kissing you was unfortunate."

I laughed, remembering Bill walking in on a near miss between me and Sam. "Yeah, well, I didn't really like seeing you with Selah Pumphrey much either."

Bill relaxed slightly. "I wanted to make you jealous. I am glad it worked." We both fell silent for a few seconds. "I am glad Niall and I found you before you were killed."

I smiled, the corners of my lips twisting up, but sadly. I'd spent a fair bit of time not being all that glad they'd found me before I died. "Nearly got yourself killed for your trouble."

"It was worth it. At least you were finally able to forgive my betrayal, and now you have managed to heal me as well. I'm going to stay with Judith for some time."

I nodded. "I gathered that, from what I heard. How long you likely to be gone for?"

"Two months, maybe more. I will be reachable, by email or phone, and I will probably be home, for a few days at least, in two or three months."

"Well, let me know if you need someone to water your plants. Hey, did you know I'm starting college classes? Claudine left me some money." I knew he didn't know that, but it allowed us a segue into more neutral conversation. We talked for about ten minutes, about my plans and hopes, and Bill wished me luck, telling me he knew I'd succeed. When he'd finished his blood and I'd finished my drink, we both stood and I led him to the door. With a smile and a hug, I finally said goodbye to Bill Compton.

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**A/N:** Hope you didn't mind Bill invading this chapter. I felt like these two needed a proper airing out of the past and a chance to end things on their terms. Hope you liked it!


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Sorry this took so long! It's all filler/ESN but I should have more plot coming soon.

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I sat on my couch for a little while, watching the ice melt in my empty glass, before Eric strolled casually back into the living room. I managed a weak smile. "Enjoy your walk?"

He nodded and sank down onto the couch next to me. "You had a good talk with Bill?"

"I guess." I wouldn't call it good, per se. "Maybe cathartic is a better word. I found out a few things I probably knew on some level but had never wanted to admit. It's been intense tonight, I guess. I just feel like everything is changing, spinning out of control and I can't stop it."

Eric's arm snaked around my shoulder. "Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, Sookie."

I snorted. "I don't think I've ever had anything change for the good. I mean, my track record's not the greatest. My parents died and I came to live with my Gran. Supes came into my life and that opened a whole barrel of trouble, including getting my Gran killed. I guess I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Eric pulled me close to him, both of us stretching out on the couch. I nuzzled into his neck, feeling contentment pour over me. "Let's talk of happier things then. Have you thought about my idea of going away for a few days?"

I sighed. Contentment had lasted about 3.5 seconds. "I don't know, Eric. What about just hiding out at your house for a while. Anywhere we go, I'm going to be spending my days on my own. I can sunbathe in your back yard as easily as anywhere else."

I could feel Eric smiling into my neck and he kissed me, slowly working his way up to my lips. "That's settled, then," he murmured after kissing me so thoroughly I was having trouble focusing on what he was saying. "You'll spend a few days with me before your classes start."

I moaned slightly as he nipped the spot just below where my ear met my neck. "Eric, this isn't persuasion, this is blackmail."

He kept his focus on kissing and nipping my neck, the pressure of his teeth finding that balance, pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. My hips found their own rhythm, arching into him without any input from my brain. I tried to remember what we'd been talking about and failed. "I have always loved blackmail. It is simple and can be oh so effective." Eric had paused in kissing my neck to speak, and I took the opportunity to fist my hand into his hair and pull him up to my lips. It was certainly a better way to spend the time before he had to head to Shreveport than discussing potential vacation plans.

His hand went to my waistband and slowly untucked my shirt, his fingers tracing their way up my side and snaking underneath my bra to brush the underside of my breast. I arched my hips into him and could feel him smile against my lips. "You'll stay with me." It wasn't a question.

I sighed and relaxed back into the couch cushions. Eric obviously wasn't going to give up, and I really wanted to get laid. It wasn't like I had other plans. I sighed. "What's in it for me?" I couldn't help but smile.

His hips rocked slowly into mine as he kissed me deeply, his tongue tracing out the contours of my mouth as I relaxed into the kiss. He pulled away at last, leaving me gasping for air. I could feel his erection pressed against my leg through his jeans. "There will be many things in it for you, my lover. Tell me you'll stay."

I sighed slightly. I really wanted to get laid, and apparently Eric wasn't going to give me what I wanted until I agreed to his plan. I supposed a few days, well, nights, of mind blowing sex were nothing to sneeze at in the grand scheme of things. "Eric, fine, on one condition." He made an inquisitive noise against my neck. "Sex, now."

He had me in my bedroom before I could blink, and I was pretty sure we'd flown there. My feet certainly hadn't touched the ground, and I shrieked in surprise. Eric's grin was almost feral when he stared down at me, eyeing my breasts, which were doing a lot of moving as I panted. His fangs were down and he licked his lips before he spoke. "Those terms are satisfactory."

My shirt was gone, followed very quickly by my bra. I tried to take Eric's shirt off, but he stopped me by pinning both my wrists in one of his large hands. His other hand moved over one breast and down to my waist as I struggled against him playfully. This side of Eric, the part of him that enjoyed a chase, and what my trashier romance novels described as a good ravishing, didn't come out that often, but when it did I knew I was in for a good time.

I giggled, trying to pull my hands out of his grip, but he was having none of it. His free hand flipped open the button of my shorts before yanking them down to my knees. His hand nestled between my thighs, his fingers rubbing against my panties, which were certainly soaked through. I bucked my hips into him, trying to get a bit more friction where I wanted it. I was panting, I wanted him so bad. I was still struggling against him, but I wasn't even pretending it was because I wanted to get away. Now his hand kept me from wrapping my fingers in his hair and forcing him to my lips, from pulling his jeans down and having my way with him.

I cried out when his fingers moved my panties aside and dipped inside of me, shuddered when he moved those fingers to his mouth, tasting me. He kissed me, deeply, and I could taste myself on his tongue. I cried out when he broke off the kiss, fighting against him with all my strength. "Eric, please," I panted.

He took a few moments to simply watch me, seeming to enjoy my struggles, before he pushed my shorts further down then used his leg to help me kick them off. He tugged down my panties as well, and I was laid out before him. He was still completely dressed and for a few seconds I felt shy. The raw desire I felt for him embarrassed me, and I could feel my skin flushing.

Eric, of course, smiled at my blush, moving his nose close to my collar bone and tracing it up my neck. I could feel the cool stirring of air as he breathed in. "You are so delicious when you flush, lover. The blood rushes to the surface of your skin and you smell so sweet. You shouldn't be embarrassed. I want you just as much as you want me."

I pouted, biting my bottom lip slightly. The sight of my teeth certainly seemed to do something for him, since he finally released my hands and shed his own clothing, but before I could grab on to him my hands were pinned again. I started pulling against him. "Eric!" I hated how whiney I sounded, but I couldn't help it.

He seemed content to mostly ignore my protests, at least for the moment. One hand held my wrists and the other decided to focus on my breasts, rolling first one nipple and then the other between his fingertips. He nipped at my neck, sucking hard enough to make me cry out, my hips rising off the bed in an effort to find some kind of release. He wasn't breaking the skin, but I was pretty sure I was going to have the more traditional kind of marks dotting my neck in the morning. No part of me cared.

He really was driving me crazy, and he seemed to be feeding off my wildness. After a second of looking into my eyes, his pupils dilated to the point that they were only ringed by a thin line of blue, he pushed me flat onto the bed and bit into my breast. I screamed at the suddenness of it, then moaned as he pulled on the wound. I could feel a fresh flow of wetness between my thighs as I pressed them together, trying to get some kind of friction. I was sopping for him.

Apparently, Eric decided he'd tortured me enough, since he pushed open my thighs and settled himself between them. I sighed with relief, but then saw his very mischievous smirk and nearly groaned in frustration. He certainly was not done. He placed the tip of his penis at my opening and I bucked into him, trying desperately to get him inside of me where I wanted. In some feat of superhuman control, he brushed the tip of his penis over my labia, making me thrash in an effort to get him inside of me. Finally, finally, he relented, sliding into me in a single stroke. I groaned, finally going still in relief. After a moment of relishing having him inside of me, I started moving my hips, making Eric laugh. He shifted his weight, so that the pressure of his hips on mine forced me to still. "So eager, my lover. Perhaps I should deny you more often, if this is the kind of reaction I get."

I wanted to scream in frustration, but settled for glaring at him for a second before snapping, "Would you just fuck me already?"

He didn't reply, but I'm pretty sure he got the message, since he hooked one of my legs over his elbow and started, finally, moving his hips. His pace increased fairly rapidly and after a few swift strokes I felt myself contracting around him and I screamed. He didn't slow down, and neither did my orgasm. I couldn't tell if I was having multiple orgasms or if I was just having one really long, intense one with a few extra intense peaks, but I really didn't care. Whatever was going on felt amazing.

Eric finally groaned and rocked into me a final time before going limp. I couldn't blame him. If he hadn't been holding onto me, I probably would have slid off the bed. I had no clue where my bones were, but they certainly weren't serving their intended purpose. After a few moments of stillness, he rolled off me with a groan and passed me some tissues. I made a halfhearted effort at cleaning myself up before I decided that my arms really weren't working. He laughed at me and took over.

Once we were both clean, he smiled at me. "Worth the wait?"

I wasn't at the point of being able to form complete sentences, but I could move just enough to give him the finger, which made him laugh again. He rolled me onto my side and cuddled up behind me. I was tired, exhausted, but I knew he had to leave really soon if he wanted to be back in Shreveport for the day and I didn't want to fall asleep without saying goodbye. I forced myself to speak. "Honey, do you need to be getting home?"

"Kicking me out already, Sookie?" I tried, ineffectually, to jab him with my elbow. He laughed, then nuzzled his nose into my neck. "Yes, but I want to snuggle for a few minutes at least. Are you still happy to go out with me tomorrow night?" I nodded. "I have to take care of some work in Shreveport. Would you mind meeting me at Fangtasia, perhaps around eleven?"

"Sounds good. What am I dressing for?" I didn't want to flat out ask what on earth would be open in Shreveport at eleven on a Sunday night.

I could feel his fingers working through my hair. "I was thinking we could go to one of the casinos, and perhaps I could persuade you to stay with me."

"I'll have to check my work schedule. Sam's cutting back my hours to twenty-five or thirty, since Holly's been begging for more time. If I'm off Monday, that'll work for me."

He leaned over to kiss my cheek. "Leave me a voicemail when you know your plans." He flopped back onto the pillows and pulled me close to him. "I do have to go." He kissed me again, then seemed to pull himself away with effort. "I will see you tomorrow." It wasn't a question.

"Yep. Do you want me to walk you out?"

He shook his head and kissed me again. "You should get some sleep. I can see myself out."

I sighed happily, glad I didn't need to get out of my comfortable bed. I watched him rise and start pulling his jeans on. "Hey, Eric?"

He looked up at me. "Yes lover?"

I wished he didn't have to go. "How much effort would be involved in making a better light-tight place for you here? I know the closet can't be that comfortable for you."

He chuckled as he buttoned his jeans. "I am dead during the day, lover. It is not as if I mind being a bit cramped."

I shrugged. "Yeah, but I hate making you climb into the closet when you stay here. And you don't go out for the day right at dawn. It's nice when I can talk to you before I start my day. Can't do that when you're in my guestroom closet."

That made him laugh as he pulled on his tee shirt. "So you want to light-proof your bedroom because you like to cuddle with a dead man."

"Eric! Don't be like that!"

He was still laughing. "I'm sure the fact that I can wake up before sunset and have you to myself for a bit doesn't enter into the equation at all."

I could feel myself blushing. "Geez, I just asked a question."

He bent down and kissed me softly on the lips. "To answer your question, it would be fairly difficult. Because of the water table, building underground is next to impossible. I was lucky to find a house that backed onto a hill. Light proof glass, like they have in the hotels is fine for hotels with their own security, but it is a bit conspicuous for a human home. Plus I don't think you would enjoy having a blacked out bedroom all the time." He traced a finger down to the tan line on my breast. "I know how much you love the sun. There have been some advances these past few years in temporary solutions. I can look into options, if you'd like." I nodded and he kissed me again. "I really have to go. I love you, Sookie."

I sighed and pulled him down for one last kiss. "Love you too. See you tomorrow, baby." He glanced back at me one more time before slipping out my bedroom door. I sighed and clicked off the bedside light.

Aside from all the drama of the evening, giving Sam my notice, seeing Bill, I was happy. Truthfully most of the drama was pushed way back in my mind. My life was moving on, and that was a good thing. My boyfriend, or husband if he was doing the talking, loved me, and he was great in the sack. The limpness of my limbs and complete inability to move attested to that. I was going to be starting college soon. I was, for once, on pretty good terms with all my family members. Heck, I had more family than I did a year ago.

Tomorrow was Sunday, and my day off. Eric wanted to go on a date with me. A date that didn't involve a telepathy job or some kind of vampire event. Of course, it was going to be a late night thing, since he had a bit of business in Shreveport to attend to, but he was still taking me out. I took a couple seconds to feel sorry for myself that we'd never have Sunday afternoon barbeques before I shook myself and said screw it. Eric didn't need to be around for me to invite over my family. I was having a barbeque. With that thought making me smile to myself, I snuggled up to one of my pillows and closed my eyes.

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**A/N:** So, tomorrow is Sookie planning and hosting a small barbeque. Any guesses on who comes? Then Sookie goes to Shreveport for a night on the town! I'm thinking that chapter will be an Eric POV, just to warn you. Thoughts?


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** So, this one is short, but I'm happy with it. Also, you can't complain, I've updated twice in two days. And it means the Eric POV will be along shortly. Hope you like!

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I smiled to myself as I cut up stuff for coleslaw. I'd had a good day, even if I was going to have to take a nap before my date with Eric. I'd gone to church in the morning, and even if I hadn't really listened to Reverend Collins's sermon, I'd enjoyed the time, and the singing, no matter how bad I'd sounded. Now I was getting things ready for my barbeque.

Jason was bringing Michele over, Tara and JB were coming, even Dermot and Claude were going to show up. Sam was going to drop by once he closed up at Merlotte's. The highlight, as far as I was concerned was that Remy was bringing Hunter. I was happy my little cousin could come, and lucky I'd caught his dad on a day off, since they were about an hour and a half away and we really didn't know each other all that well. I'd pretty much expected him to tell me no way, but I was glad when he said yes, and I could hear Hunter yelling happily in the background.

After church I'd picked up steaks and chicken legs, some veggies and corn to throw on the grill and everything I needed for pecan pie. I also got some soda, juice and beer, though not too much beer since everyone had to be driving home. All the drinks were chilling out back, and the coals were nearly ready. I'd skewered up the veggies, made a nice, smoky barbeque sauce for the chicken and the corn cobs were partially husked. There was a fresh pitcher of sweet tea in the fridge. Two pecan pies were cooling on the countertop. I was feeling pretty darn good about my domestic abilities. Tara was making potato salad and Michele was making corn bread and a chocolate icebox cake.

JB and Tara arrived first, and I was surprised to see how huge Tara looked, since she was still two months away from being due. I guess twins would do that to you. "Hey honey!" I hugged her hard around the shoulders. "You are looking so beautiful!" I heard a string of grumbling from her mind and I laughed. "Tara, baby, of course you're getting big. You're growing two little people inside you. You still look beautiful." She did look beautiful. She'd finally gotten herself some proper maternity clothes, and she had a healthy glow. Most of the weight she'd gained was the baby bump, maybe a little bit in her face and arms.

She smiled at me then. "Thanks Sook. I needed to hear that. I just feel like such an elephant right now, and I've got all these stupid hormones. Hey, my shower in Clarice is next week. I've got an invitation for you." She pulled an envelope from her handbag.

"Gosh, and we've got your Bon Temps shower the week after! Stuff is coming up fast." I was glad I'd managed to send out the invitations for that earlier this week. "Did you get one of the invites I sent? I made sure to send you one, even if it is for your own shower!"

She grinned at me and pulled it out of her purse. "Yep. And I got the website where we registered all set up, so people will know what to get. I'm getting pretty excited."

I felt a bit bad for JB who seemed to fade into the background a bit. "Can I get either of you guys something to drink? I got all the usual suspects." I got out some sweet tea for Tara and JB asked for a beer. Then I got both of them settled out on the back porch. JB insisted on taking a look at my wrists, which he declared to be just about back to normal, which made me smile. They hardly hurt me at all these days. Jason and Michele pulled up next, and I sent Jason to the shed to pull out some more chairs. He called me cruel for not even letting him have a beer first, but Michele just raised an eyebrow at him and he went, though he did sigh dramatically.

I looked at her in amazement. "Michele you have got to teach me that trick. Only person who could ever make Jason march even half the time was Gran and even she still had to listen to him complain."

Michele smiled at me, but refused to give away any secrets, just went to put the cake in the fridge. It was only mid May, but it was still pretty hot. As soon as Jason came back with chairs, I put him and JB on grill duty, each with a beer in hand. Michele settled down next to Tara and went through the normal "when are you due" niceties that every pregnant woman had to face. Tara, as I found out when I accidentally peaked in her mind, was just glad she didn't ask for details of her birthing plan.

The next car to roll into my back yard was Remy Savoy's, and he waved to us all before getting Hunter out. As soon as he was free of the car, her came running over to me yelling "Aunt Sookie!" and I scooped him up in a hug and spun him around before walking back towards Remy, who had stalled near the grill. Hunter seemed content to just hug my neck and stay balanced on my hip.

I smiled at my cousin's former husband. "Hey Remy. You guys have an okay drive?"He nodded at me and smiled. I gestured at the other two men who were happily prodding cooking meat. "This is my brother, Jason, and this is JB du Rone. We went to high school together and he's married to my friend Tara. Jason, JB, this is Remy Savoy. He was married to Hadley. And this," I nodded my head at the boy who's head was now buried in my neck, "is his son, Hunter."

After a few seconds, Hunter perked up and said hello to Jason and JB. I'd told Jason about Hunter, and he'd been surprisingly to meet our young cousin. After a minute Jason had managed to coax Hunter down from my arms and had the kid laughing hysterically. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Jason was good with kids. He was basically a giant one himself. I figured they should get acquainted. "Remy can I get you something to drink?"

He followed me to the porch and accepted a can of coke, and I introduced him to Tara and Michele. Michele was eyeing Jason appraisingly, watching him go to his truck to find a football which was always kicking around in the cab so they could play catch. I wondered if they were on the way to marriage. I hoped they wouldn't rush into the baby side of things. Jason needed time to get used to monogamy and behaving like an honest to god adult.

Claude and Dermot arrived right as the chicken and veggies came off the grill, and we went through the round of introductions. Hunter remembered Claude and greeted him enthusiastically. Both Jason and I got long hugs that should probably have been awkward but weren't. Sam turned up just after the steaks were ready, while everyone was plating up food. I waved him over and gestured for him to help himself.

Everyone settled in pretty quick, and I was a bit surprised that everyone got along, and how normal everyone seemed. Of course we talked about jobs, since some people were meeting for the first time, and I had to field some very awkward questions from Hunter once Dermot explained that he was working at Claude's club for the time being. Tara arched an eyebrow at some of those questions, and I figured she'd cottoned on to the little gift Hunter and I shared. In fact, I was pretty sure Jason and Sam figured it out pretty quick, since they both knew me pretty well and recognized the signs. JB didn't seem to catch on, for all that we'd been friends as kids. He was not the sharpest tack in the box.

I was pretty sure it helped Hunter to see that none of my friends or family were afraid of him, as strangers and even his family members frequently were. I think it helped Remy too, since he was pretty freaked out by me. Remy was pretty amazed I even had friends. He didn't say so, but then, he didn't need to. I just smiled and passed him the potato salad before he asked for it. Maybe I was feeling a little petty, but I was past caring.

I was having a good time, even if it surprised me how normal everyone was being. After we'd eaten as much of dinner as we could, the boys went out onto the lawn to toss around the football with Hunter, and he seemed ridiculously pleased to have so many new 'uncles' to hang out with. He was certainly working hard to tire himself out. Michele helped me clean up a bit, both of us insisting that Tara didn't need to be on her feet right now. She tried to protest, but I knew she was thankful, so she stayed sat.

Between the two of us, we set my kitchen to rights pretty quickly and got the desserts laid out with a big bowl of whipped cream to go with them. My mouth was watering over the icebox cake, which certainly didn't need any more whipped cream involved in it. After calling everybody in for some pie, and taking a slice of the pecan and scoop of the icebox cake for myself and topping up my sweet tea, I dragged a lounge chair into the sun to spend some time laying out. I figured I could enjoy the sun and the company at the same time.

The cover up I'd been wearing over my bikini came off, and I spent some time watching the people in my life talk and laugh together in my yard. It felt good to be doing something so normal. It also felt good to be reclaiming my yard, since I hadn't really spent much time out there since the torture twins grabbed me, aside from doing absolutely essential yard work a couple times. It felt good to just feel human.

Hunter surprised me by coming up next to me while my eyes were closed. "Hey, Aunt Sookie?"

I smiled at the little boy. "What's up, Hunter?"

"Your friends aren't afraid of me."

Sometimes he broke my heart, a little. "Well, they know me, and I'm not so bad. I guess they figure that if you're like me you're pretty okay too."

He smiled a little uncertainly. "Will people stop being scared of me?"

God, how many times had I wondered the same thing as a kid? "Some will, honey. Some won't. Some people are just scared of things they can't understand. I choose to keep people who aren't scared of me as my friends. They all understand that everybody's a bit different in their own way, and they don't mind our differences."

He climbed up onto the lounge to cuddle next to me. I had to focus on keeping him out of my head, since touching amplified what we could do. "Am I going to find friends like that, Aunt Sookie?"

I hugged him, hard. "Sure you will, honey. It takes time, that's all. Hey look, Jason found a grass snake he wants to show you." I gave him another hug and shooed him towards Jason, who was bent over inspecting something in the grass.

I watched them together for a bit, the blond man bent over next to the brown-haired child, both watching the tiny snake moving slowly through the grass, Hunter grinning like a maniac and Jason smiling right along with him. That sight brought me a lot of hope, for all of us.

A few hours later, after everyone had cleared off home and I'd managed a couple hours of nap time, I was still smiling. My family wasn't conventional, especially not since I was currently getting ready to go see my vampire boyfriend/husband, but we were all happy and healthy, and I suppose that made us pretty lucky indeed. We'd all been through so much in the past few years, and things seemed to be finally leveling out. Sam still had the protestors to deal with, but I hoped news of my quitting would get to Lattesta and that it would taper off. I was sure we hadn't heard the last of Victor Madden, but at least it was quiet on that front for the moment.

I smiled to myself, laid out the dress I'd chosen and went to get into the shower.

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**A/N**: So, as I said, short, but to the point. Next up, Eric POV at the casino!


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** So, it's been about 3 months since I updated, and I'm really sorry, especially as I've had most of this chapter (all but the last 500 words or so) written for pretty much that entire time. I just wasn't satisfied with it, and honestly I'm still not, but at this point I just need to stop looking at it and move on. So, sorry to give you something less than stellar after a hugely patient wait. Also sorry if you got alerted to this twice. I screwed up posting and had to do it again. So yeah. Many "sorries" all round. I at least know where the next chapter is going to get put me in a happy place with it, so it should be relatively quick, I hope. As a reminder, this chapter is in Eric's pov, since I'm sure you all forgot that was what was promised.

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**Eric:**

She was wearing that dress. The one she was in the first time she walked into my bar, white with little red flowers embroidered into it. Did she even know how many of my fantasies revolved around that dress? How many times, after seeing her that first night, I imagined her wearing it, in my office as I bent her over my desk and fucked her until she screamed my name? She even had the red heels on again.

Now, of course, she was mine, and I knew exactly what it was like to fuck her. It made the fantasies that much better.

She smiled at me when she walked into the club, and I could tell she was happy. She practically shone with it. Her skin was a little darker, so she'd been out in the sun. She smelled so good. I could see other heads raise when she walked past, unnecessary breaths drawn in. Knowing she was mine filled me with a sense of peace I hadn't felt in a very long time. Pam raised an eyebrow at me after she noticed what Sookie was wearing. My child had a very good idea of what that dress did to me. She smirked. "So, Eric, what are the odds you even make it out of your office tonight?"

I frowned at her. "Don't you have work to do? I'm fairly certain I pay you for something." Pam just rolled her eyes at me, then walked towards Sookie, who'd stopped to say hello to Indira. Pam actually hugged Sookie, inhaled and then threw back her head and laughed.

Her comment, after Sookie questioned this very odd behavior, let me know I was in serious trouble. "Oh, nothing Sookie. I'm sure your 'date' is going to be very entertaining." She threw in air quotes, for fuck's sake. This evening was not going to be easy for me. Of course, Sookie just laughed and waved a hand at Pam before making her way to the booth I was sitting in, pretending to do work on my laptop. I'd probably stopped working half an hour ago, looking up whenever someone walked into the club, not really caring that I knew it wasn't Sookie, because I could feel that she was coming closer but had still not arrived through the bond. Pam had given me plenty of shit for that, of course, but since I'd ignored her she'd stopped eventually. She always gave up if she couldn't get the desired rise. Of course, most people rose to her bait fairly quickly. I had nearly two hundred years of practice at ignoring her, which gave me a slight advantage.

Sookie leaned in to kiss my cheek, but I tilted my face at the last moment to catch her lips. It felt so wondrously good to be close to her, and she felt genuinely relaxed and happy. I could feel how much she loved me and it made me just want to sit there all evening feeling it. I slid over in my booth, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her close to me. When she was settled next to me, I leaned into her hair, inhaling the smell of her, trying to get as close to her as I could in this very public venue. Not that most of the crowd here would mind, but she would, and that mattered to me. She mattered to me.

She smelled wonderful, like fairy and sunshine and a hint of smoke, underneath her habitual bath products, and underneath all of that was just her. I ran my chin along her hair, trying to rub her smell into my skin. "What did you to today, lover?"

She leaned into me and took a sip of the gin and tonic that was deposited in front of her. I appreciated having well trained staff. "Well, I went to church this morning. Then I had a barbeque. Had a bunch of people over. Laid out in the sun. It was a good day."

I smiled into her neck. It was odd to me, occasionally, that she still went to church from time to time. Of course, I'd never really understood the attraction of the Christian god. It especially baffled me after seeing the holy wars so many had fought in, and were still fighting in, because of that god. I still thought about my gods from time to time, the gods that had been mine I was human. Thor, Freya, Odin, even Loki. I had frequently thought about Loki during the months I hadn't been able to remember my stay with Sookie. It was a situation that the trickster would have found delightfully amusing. "Who came to your barbeque, lover?"

"My brother, his girlfriend, Michele, my cousin Claude, my uncle Dermot. Tara, her husband JB, Sam. You remember Hunter, who stayed with me when Claude was living with me?" I nodded. I hadn't met the boy, but I'd seen him when going to my rest at Sookie's. "He and his father came along too. It was nice."

I smiled at her slightly and kissed her hair, before picking up my laptop and gesturing for her to proceed me out. I led her to my office and had my laptop closed on my desk an instant before I had her pressed up against the door, my hands running up her naked thighs to brush against the edges of some article of clothing that felt very lacy and minimalist. Her hands came down to push mine away, and I accepted that she wouldn't appreciate me fucking her against my office door. I settled for kissing her deeply, my hands running from her waist to trace the contour of her breasts through the thin cotton of her dress.

Finally, when I knew she would be gasping for air, I broke off the kiss, pushing myself slightly away from her. I knew, when I was objective about it, that I had seen women more beautiful than the one standing before me. Somehow, I simply couldn't picture one at the moment. She had invaded my mind. The smell of fairy was not helping, especially not when she was wearing that dress. My control was dangling by a thread. Her voice brought me back to myself, if only slightly. "Well, honey, that certainly was a welcome, but if you think I'm having sex with you in your office you've got another thing coming." She pointed to one of the many 'No Biting on Premises' signs. "Besides, isn't it against policy?"

I spent a few seconds trying to will away my erection, with limited success. If she wasn't going to let me fuck her, I was going to be semi-hard all night. "One of the privileges of being the boss is that I make the policy. Besides, breaking the rules can be so much fun." I leaned into her as I said the last word, burying my face in her neck. I could see some marks there, even though she'd covered them with makeup. I'd left bruises on her neck during our love making the evening before. Though I took care to keep my biting restricted to places not generally on view, these marks would have been clearly visible without the makeup. I shifted, running a finger over one of them. "Sorry about the love bites."

She laughed, and I shifted slightly so I could watch her. "You should be sorry about that. I thought I had them all covered, but of course, Jason saw the one I missed. Do you know how merciless brothers are when they tease you?" Her smile let me know she was probably over any residual anger. "Though of course, Jason being Jason, he had to say that he didn't even know vampires could give a person hickeys. Michele gave him a whack on my behalf. So, what's planned for our date, then?"

I kissed her swiftly before pulling back. "Well, I had planned on taking you to one of the casinos in Bossier City, perhaps playing some poker. However, if you would prefer to simply return to my house, I would have no objections to that idea." That earned me a smack on the chest. "Fine then, we shall go out. I was thinking we could go to the Shamrock Casino. I was there when the Weres came out of the doghouse, and they have some decent table games." It certainly wasn't as good as the casinos in Vegas, but I couldn't see having a desire to go there any time soon.

She gave me a half smile. "Table games aren't really my thing, you know." She tapped a finer against her forehead, letting me know what she meant. "If I focus on my shields, I can't focus on my cards, and if I focus on my cards, well, say goodbye to my shields and I hate cheating."

That made me laugh. "You know, with a gift like yours, I'm surprised you never took advantage of the casinos." Especially considering how many times in her life she'd most likely been in desperate need of money. I knew better than to say as much.

She shrugged. "It wouldn't be right. I've played cards for change, that kind of thing, and Jason tried a few times to drag me to the casinos after I turned twenty-one but Gran put a stop to that pretty quick."

"Well, what about getting a nice dinner? There is a vampire friendly restaurant in Shreveport I have been meaning to try." Simply going to dinner would also get her home with me much more quickly than an evening at a casino, and she didn't seem too excited about the casino idea anyway. The way she was dressed, and the way she smelled, I didn't think I could stand the hours we would need to spend in a casino. "Have a meal, do a bit of dancing…"

When I trailed off, I was rewarded with a large grin from Sookie. "That sounds really nice, honey. Plus it will mean more time at your place." I liked when we were on the same wavelength. She took a few seconds to straighten her dress, then took the arm I offered her.

We arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes later, after a brief argument was resolved by handing her car keys off to Pam, who would drop her car at my house before going to rest for the day. It took me pointing out that I could not drink alcohol and she could for me to win that argument, but at least she acquiesced.

The restaurant was busy enough that we had to wait for a few minutes at the bar while our table was prepared. Sookie took a moment to peruse the cocktail menu and I was handed a smaller menu that had a list of synthetic and natural blood options. I opted for a natural blend and Sookie got something that was served in a martini glass and smelled of gin and citrus. To be fair, my drink was also served in a martini glass, so that particular detail wasn't all that helpful. I should probably have known what it was, being a bar owner, but the last time I had actually worked behind a bar a sidecar had been the height of mixology. It had also been the height of prohibition and the word 'mixology' hadn't existed. She smiled when I asked her what it was and answered with a slight smirk. "Gin and sin. Figured I don't have enough of either in my life."

The woman winked at me, making me laugh. I leaned down to murmur into her ear. "Well, I can certainly help with the sin part of the equation." My hand slipped under her skirt, hidden by my body and the lip of the bar. Surprisingly, she didn't push me away, and I let my fingers stroke her thigh. "You know, I love the dress you're wearing. It's been a long time since I've seen it."

She seemed slightly puzzled for a moment, then her eyes widened and she smacked her forehead. "I can't believe it! I was wearing this the first time I came into Fangtasia, wasn't I?" I nodded, licking my lips slightly. "Is that why you've been so handsy tonight?"

"I always like a hands on approach." I winked at her, and trailed my fingertips slightly further up her thigh, making her laugh and then the maitre d' came to show us to our table. Sookie took some time to look over the menu, frowning occasionally. "Is everything alright?"

She glanced up at me. "Oh sure. I've never had Thai before, so I'm just taking my time. Anything you particularly object to, food wise?" I shook my head slightly. She spoke absently as she read the menu. "Bill was such a pain about food. He always said he could taste it when I ate certain things, you know, like garlic and stuff."

Gods, that man was irritating. If it weren't for Sookie, I would have killed him, long since. "I don't love garlic, but I am pretty much inured to it after a century in France. Part of passing for human for so long meant spending significant amounts of time around food. We used garlic when I was human, and I liked it then. Perhaps that is why it doesn't bother me so much now. Bill has been oversensitive since he was turned, apparently." I didn't call him a bitch, which I deserved a medal for, quite frankly.

Sookie sighed then, making me glad I'd chosen not to directly insult her former lover. "I don't know what to do about a couple of things Bill told me." I nodded for her to continue. I'd heard most of the beginning of their conversation, so I had an idea about what might be irritating her. The fact that she'd saved him from drainers had been amusing; the fact that he'd nearly let said drainers kill her so that he could give her his blood had been decidedly less so. That had been the fact that convinced me I needed to be out of hearing distance for the remainder of their conversation. "You heard what he said about the drainers?" I nodded. "Well, I wasn't really happy to hear that he let them beat me near to death just so he could have an excuse to give me his blood. I mean, you tricked me into drinking your blood too, but at least you were the hurt one in that situation."

I chuckled softly to myself, remembering her sucking a bullet out of me in Dallas. It had certainly been worth her irritation. "At least I'm honest about my deviousness." That made her laugh. "I know that the whole Bill situation is upsetting, but I suppose you just have to put it in the past. You won't be seeing him for some time, so you will be able to process the information he's given you. You certainly don't owe him your friendship."

She shook her head slightly, but the waitress came to take our orders. Sookie got something that involved noodles and chicken, I opted for another blended blood and she ordered herself some wine. Once the waitress was gone she picked up the conversation. "I don't know if it's true about me not owing Bill friendship, but I guess you're right. I've got some time to think things over." With any luck she'd be living with me by the time Bill returned, and I wouldn't have to worry about him hanging around all the time. "So, honey, what made you want to take me out tonight?"

I was slightly puzzled by the question. "Well our last evening out was severely hampered by running into those two from New Orleans." I wasn't stupid enough to mention any names out loud. With Victor in Las Vegas as Felipe's guest, I wasn't being watched as closely, but I had no clue when exactly that was going to change. "Plus, Pam was telling me I don't take you out often enough if I feel inclined to crash a girl's night out."

That made her laugh again, and I could feel her mood begin to shift back to the light happiness she'd been feeling before the conversation had drifted towards Bill. Pam had also seen fit to tell me that the whole situation with Bill was at least part of the reason Sookie had doubts about our relationship. Sookie didn't think she could hold my interest. That, of course, was another thing I could kill Bill for, but doing so wouldn't help the situation. The only thing that would help was time. She was giving me that, at least. It had pained me, when Pam pulled me aside the evening after they'd been out together to break Sookie's confidence. Pam hadn't told me much, just that I needed to demonstrate to my lover that I was not going to get bored of being with her, that Bill had obviously been tired of her before getting abducted and dragging Sookie and me into his mess and that this had made her sure she would never be able to hold my interest.

Of course, Pam and I had known he was getting out of the relationship. His plan to make sure she was provided for had made me wonder if he knew her at all. At the time, I just assumed I would have more opportunities to get into Sookie's good graces, hopefully get her to sleep with me. I'd had no idea he'd been so obvious. I smiled at the woman sitting across from me, pushing my thoughts to one side. Tonight was supposed to be a calm evening out for us, not an occasion to rehash failed relationships. "Are you excited to begin taking your classes?"

She gave a half shrug and drank the last sip of her cocktail, prompting our server to arrive with a bottle of wine. It was opened quickly and a small sip poured. Sookie looked slightly self conscious, tasting the wine, but she nodded to the server, who poured her a full glass and left us alone. It took Sookie a moment to answer my question. "I'm nervous, but I'm excited. I'm going to be older than a lot of the kids, so that'll be weird. I'm worried about keeping things under control." She tapped her forehead. "I just have to wait and see how it goes."

Her food arrived then, and she thanked the server, before beginning to eat. I watched her for a few moments, enjoying her meal, before she looked up at me. "Eric, are you seriously just going to watch me eat?" It was my turn to shrug. I didn't have anything else to occupy myself with. "Well, that just doesn't work for me. Talk to me, tell me what's been going on for you lately."

I humored her, telling her of some of the recent goings on at Fangtasia, about the new bartender, who was a fairly young vampire that Pam knew from the Midwest. I didn't mention Felipe or Victor or ask her questions about the irritating FBI agent. With half the food still on her plate, she declared herself stuffed, making me frown. Of course, she just laughed at me. "Eric, honey, restaurant portions are usually pretty huge. This'll be my lunch tomorrow."

I was still frowning, but she just smiled and shook her head before signaling the server to wrap her remaining food. She refused the offer of dessert and I asked for the check, giving Sookie a few minutes to finish her glass of wine.

Once I'd paid, and Sookie insisted that she be the one to leave the tip, we returned to my car. I'd mentioned dancing, and she still seemed to find the idea appealing, so we agreed to try a human club that was still open on a Sunday evening. Neither of us seemed to find returning to Fangtasia an enticing option. I was enjoying being out of the center of attention and so, apparently, did Sookie. It only took us a few minutes to arrive and park at our destination.

For the short drive, I found myself focused on my rearview mirror, even as my hand toyed with the hem of Sookie's dress. There was a dark blue sedan directly behind me all the way from the restaurant to the club. It continued past me while I parked, but a minute later, as we were getting out of the car, it passed again. I frowned, then glanced to Sookie. She hadn't noticed the car, and for the moment I chose to let our evening continue uninterrupted, though I would be extra vigilant. I hadn't recognized the man driving. He had close cropped dark hair and pale skin, though I was sure he was human.

If he was after me, he had to be some religious nut. No vampire would have a human track me, since all of my enemies knew about Sookie. It was more likely someone interested in Sookie, perhaps a law enforcement officer of some kind. Maybe she'd even drawn the attention of some of the fundamentalist zealots herself. For now I was confident I could handle the situation, though I sent a quick text to Pam, warning her of possible danger.

Sookie smiled at me as my fingers flew over the keys of my blackberry. "Touching base with Pam?" I nodded, since it was technically true. "You don't have work you need to be doing, do you?"

After hitting send, I took her hand in mine, bringing it up to my lips. "Nothing that can't wait. I let her know where we decided to go, in case of an emergency." Again, technically true. I did not want to lie to Sookie, but I didn't want to worry her needlessly either. The man could simply have been looking for a place to park. Glancing around once more, and seeing no sign of the dark haired man, I placed my hand in the small of her back, savoring her warmth for a moment, then led her inside.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** Sorry it's been so long folks! If anyone is still reading this, please feel free to yell at me. It reminds me which story I should be working on!

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I laughed at the face Eric pulled as we waited at the bar. The man didn't like waiting, and he certainly didn't like waiting for a drink, being so used to prompt service at his club. Of course, when we did attract the attention of the bartender, he took my order while staring pretty openly at my tits. Eric certainly didn't appreciate it, and audibly growled at the guy, who practically sprinted off to fetch my gin and tonic.

"Geez, Eric, chill out. It's not the first time a guy talked to my boobs, not my face. You've done it plenty of times yourself." I hugged him around the waist and gave him a quick half smile.

He, of course, was still frowning and watching the bartender. "Yes, well, he should be more professional."

To give the guy credit, he was back very quickly with my drink, Eric glaring daggers at him the whole time. I grabbed some money out of my purse, since I hated that Eric was trying to pay for everything tonight. I'd been very gracious about him paying for dinner, I figured he could let me have this. Of course, when I looked up from my purse, the bartender had already turned around to help someone else and when I dropped my shields to see how much I should be slipping into Eric's wallet later, the guy's thoughts were fuzzy, kind of out of focus.

I elbowed Eric in the ribs, none too gently. "Eric," I hissed, "did you seriously glamour that guy into giving me a free drink?"

He smiled, making me picture a cat licking cream off his whiskers. "He thoroughly enjoyed looking at you. The least he could do is buy you a drink." I sighed, not particularly wanting to hash this out right now. I suppose, in a way, it was _almost_ deserved. The man hadn't even tried to meet my eyes. Eric's arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me to a vacant table. "Now you can sit and drink it, and then dance with me." He pulled out a chair for me, and I sat, shaking my head slightly.

Eric, of course, still looked pleased with himself. He pulled his chair close to me and leaned in to speak to me, brushing my hair away from my neck. I shivered as his fingertips traced over my skin. He was being extra touchy-feely tonight and it was driving me a little crazy. Good crazy, but still crazy. I had to force myself to focus on his words. "And then, lover, when you have had your fill of dancing and drinks. I am going to take you home and I am going to fuck you in this dress, and out of it, until dawn. Does this sound like an acceptable plan?"

I took a gulp of my gin and tonic. Eric's hands were roaming quite a bit, one tracing up and down my spine as I leaned lightly forward in my seat, the other tracing patterns on the inside of my thigh, just at the edge of the hem of my skirt. Did I really need the dancing part? Maybe just the part where we went home and he fucked me until dawn. I shook my head slightly, trying to focus. "Sure Eric, sounds like a good plan." My voice sounded a bit breathy, but I could work with that. My free hand found one of his thighs, my fingers playing with the inner seam on his jeans. I leaned in and kissed him softly, feeling the tips of his fangs against my slightly parted lips before I steeled my resolve. We were going to dance to four songs before we left, at least. And I was going to finish my drink first. I took another gulp. "So, honey, anything exciting planned for the week?"

He leaned in close again as he spoke. "I have some very exciting plans for tonight. Perhaps you'd like to discuss those?"

I laughed. Sometimes he was just so over the top. "Come on, Eric, let's have an actual conversation. What are you up to this week?"

He sighed theatrically, but shifted slightly away from me, one arm still casually draped over the back of my chair, his finger tips absently brushing the exposed skin on the back of my arm. "Well, Pam has been talking about doing another calendar. We didn't do one for this year, because of the general upheaval from the takeover, but things are fairly stable now, and we have a good base of vampires in the area. It sold very well last time, so it seems like a worthwhile idea."

I nodded. I certainly remembered _that_ calendar. I still had it, folded open to January, tucked away in my closet, as well as a photo that hadn't made it into the calendar, one he'd sent me as a note. "Sounds like a good idea. Which month would you be this time?"

He grinned. "I'm thinking perhaps December, to save the best for last." That got me a wink. "Of course, you could go through the proofs with me, to help me choose the best one. I'm still hoping you'll relent and let me have a photo of you."

"I don't think I could ever pose nude. Posing in clothing is bad enough. Did I ever tell you about the time Claude got me to pose for some photos with him?" Eric shook his head, looking slightly puzzled. "He was entering a contest for models for the covers of romance novels, and he wanted to have some portfolio pictures. Of course, he decided that it wasn't enough to just have pictures of himself, he needed a blonde to pose with him. So naturally, he asked me, since all the blonde stripers he knew would expect him to pay them and he knew I'd do it for free. We got dressed up in ridiculous outfits and everything. Claude did win the contest, though, so I guess it was worth it. I've even got a poster of the cover he's on. He sent it to me as a thank you a while back."

"Do you have any of the pictures of you?" I couldn't tell if the idea made him horny or angry.

"Nope." I popped the 'p' and took another long sip of my gin and tonic. "Claude might still have a couple in his portfolio, or the photographer might still have them. I never even saw the finished product, I just know what a pain in the ass it was, trying to pretend to be attracted to Claude, while he pretended to be attracted to me."

Eric laughed at that and I could feel his mood leveling out. "I've not spent much time with your cousin, but even with my limited exposure, I could imagine it would be hard to ignore his personality." Eric was right. Claude was, generally speaking, an asshole and completely tactless. Still, he was family and he had his good moments. Eric changed the subject. "I was hoping you could come and sit in my club this week. What is your work schedule like?"

I shrugged slightly. "I'm on about twenty hours a week as I see out my notice, so not too busy. I'm working Wednesday during the day, Thursday night and Saturday day. I've got to meet with a state prosecutor about Arlene's trial on Tuesday during the afternoon, and Wednesday night, I'm going to a baby shower in Clarice for my friend Tara. So, I'm free tomorrow night, Tuesday night, Friday night and Saturday night. I guess tomorrow or Saturday would be best, since I won't have to work the next day. What do you want me listening for, exactly?"

Eric pursed his lips. "Well, we always get threats, being a vampire owned business, but some that we've received lately…" He paused. "Seem a bit more official."

Now I was just confused. "Official how?"

He shrugged. "Normally it's the usual drivel from religious groups. 'You will burn forever in the pits of hell, spawn of the devil', that sort of thing. Recently, there have been threats of a federal investigation into our business practices. We're not doing anything particularly wrong at the moment, so I honestly don't know what kind of federal case could be brought against us, but in order to investigate, agents would have to come to the club. I'd like to know if any show up, get a better idea of what they might be looking for."

I cradled my head in my hand. "Shit, Eric, I bet I know what this is about. It's Lattesta again, I know it. Since you're helping Sam clear up his troubles out of Monroe, he's going after you. This is all my fault." I felt tears stinging the corners of my eyes, but I refused to cry.

I felt Eric's fingers on my chin and he gently lifted my face so I could look him in the eyes. "Dear heart, don't let it concern you. All visible aspects of my business interests are above board. He can look all he likes, but he isn't going to find anything." I tried not to dwell on those aspects of Eric's business that weren't above board. I had a sneaking suspicion that the FBI had ways of finding those things you least wanted them to see. Eric's thumb stroked my cheek. "Tell me, what does this man look like. I've somehow not met him yet."

I shrugged. Agent Lattesta was so average as to be unremarkable. "I guess he's tallish, maybe five foot ten. He's got dark hair, it's pretty short. He's white, doesn't get out in the sun much. Maybe forty or forty-five."

Eric was frowning now. "I think he might have been following us earlier." I gasped. That was just insane. Why would Lattesta bother? I mean, I knew he was scared of me, and Hunter, and I knew he didn't like me, but why would he be following me around Shreveport? What was he even doing in Louisiana? Was he attending another hearing or something?

And why had Eric not bothered to tell me we were being followed? "Okay, why am I just hearing about this now?"

Eric pressed his lips together slightly. "I didn't want to worry you, and it did not yet seem like a credible threat. I told Pam to be aware."

"I don't appreciate that, at all, Eric. With all that's gone on in my life, everything that's gone wrong, I need to have as much information as I can. I don't like being blindsided." I was angry, but mostly because I was scared. "If he's watching us, we need to get out of here."

Eric shrugged one shoulder. "I don't particularly see why. We're in a public place, and if this man is with law enforcement, it seems unlikely he would do more than verbally threaten where it would be observed. Even verbal threats could cost him his job. Most likely, he just wants you to know he hasn't forgotten you, even if he has been officially forced to leave you alone, because of your great grandfather. Since you have given the shifter your notice, he may feel that he has caused you trouble, and perhaps he is feeling victorious and a bit cocky. He was not being evasive at all when he followed us. I can only assume he wanted to make it clear that he is keeping an eye on you. I don't see any particular reason to allow this to ruin a very enjoyable evening." He leaned in, brushed lips just below my ear, making me shiver. "I'm certainly enjoying myself."

I rolled my eyes. Of course Eric was enjoying himself. He was flirting with me and thinking of a potential fight. The last of my drink went down in a gulp. I stood, pulling on Eric's hand. "Well, if we're staying, I want to dance." The music pumping through the speakers had a good beat. "You know I love dancing."

Eric rolled his eyes at me, but followed me out to the dance floor. I'd almost forgotten what a good dancer Eric was, and as we moved together to the music, my worries about Lattesta fell away. Eric and I joked and laughed and I realized how very much I loved the man. We had so much fun together, when the world wasn't falling apart on our heads, and somewhere along the way I'd almost forgotten that. This was the Eric I'd missed for all those months, more even than I'd missed _my_ Eric. I'm missed my friend, and having that back meant even more than having him as my lover, though having that as well really was the icing on the cake.

I lost track of the number of songs we danced to as one track bled into the next. Finally, when I was hot and sweating, but oh so happy, I caught his eyes. Seeing the happiness reflected back at me, my heart swelled, and I felt so very, very much. I co9uldn't find words, just pulled him down to me for a kiss. "Come on, lover," I said with a wink. "Take me home."

He grinned back at me. "Of course, Sookie. As you wish."

The comment made me wonder. "Hey have you ever seen The Princess Bride?" He looked back at me as we threaded our way through the crowd, which had started to thin, and shook his head. "Seriously?" An arched eyebrow. "Well, that has to change as soon as possible. You're so coming over for a movie night. That is a classic." The cool night air hit my skin in a wave as we left the club, and I closed my eyes for a moment, just breathing it in. When I opened them, I saw Agent Lattesta standing in front of us, holding a gun.

Eric pushed me behind him, but I refused to stay there, pushing at him until I was in front of the much taller vampire. When he tried to pull me back again, I shook my head once, sharply.

I nodded at the FBI agent. "Good evening, Agent Lattesta. You having a good night?"

A small crowd was gathering, as people who were drifting out of the club saw the gun being held on us. I hoped that I could keep Lattesta talking long enough for the cops to arrive. "You're wrong. You don't deserve to live a normal life like the rest of us."

It was nothing I hadn't heard before, both aloud and from people's thoughts. I kept my voice calm. "Well, I don't think this is the best solution to the situation."

I could feel Eric fidgeting behind me, and I knew if there weren't so many people around, he would have solved this problem in his own, very final, way. "You deserve to die."

"What have I done to you? What have I ever done to you?" I was so sick of this, all this crap. I knew I shouldn't antagonize him, but I just couldn't keep calm any longer. "I have done nothing to you, and you refuse to just leave me in peace!" Eric tried to move in front of me again, but I shook my head violently. There was no way I was letting him take this bullet for me.

The thoughts streaming out of Lattesta's head were a jumbled mess of hate and insanity, but one thing was coming through loud and clear. He was going to shoot me and the bullets in his gun were silver. The only hope I had was holding him off long enough for the cops to arrive.

Of course, it didn't go that way. Lattesta started raving about how I was an 'unnatural abomination' and needed to be 'cleansed' when I noticed the bouncer creeping up behind him. The world seemed to slow down for a few agonizing seconds before everything exploded in a blinding flash of pain.


End file.
